July Budget 2015: Osborne axes student grants and replaces them with loans
Chancellor George Osborne has announced that student maintenance grants will be scrapped and replaced by loans, as part of his July Budget.
"From the 2016-17 academic year we will replace maintenance grants with loans for new students – loans that only have to be paid back once they earn over £21,000 a year," he said.
Non-repayable maintenance grants help students from low-income families cover rent and living costs while at university.
Currently students in England and Wales whose families earn £25,000 or less are eligible for maintenance grants of £3,387 a year.
If a student's family earns £30,000 or more then the maintenance grant falls to £2,441, at £35,000 to £1,491, and at £40,000 to £547.
It stops when a student's family earns more than £42,620.
The government worries the cost of student maintenance grants is set to double to £3bn over the next 10 years, making higher education funding unsustainable.