Supporting your child or partner鈥檚 student finance application in three easy steps
If your child or partner is applying for student finance, you may be asked to support their application by giving us details about your household income. This is so they can get as much student finance as possible.
Applies to England
Your child or partner must apply for student finance that is based on household income before you can support their application.
When the student applies, they鈥檒l give us your email address so we can get in touch with you.
You should follow the instructions in the email to support their application online. You should give us your details as soon as possible. If you wait too long, the student might not get all their student finance for the start of their course.
If you鈥檙e trying to support a student鈥檚 application but the link in the email doesn鈥檛 work or you鈥檝e tried to search for their details, don鈥檛 worry. This is normal to allow our systems to process their application. Please wait a few hours and try again. Giving your details online is the quickest way to supporting an application.
Follow our three easy steps to support an application.
1. Sign in or create your student finance account
You鈥檒l need to create your own account, if you don鈥檛 already have one.
Don鈥檛 use the student鈥檚 account to give us your details, you must use your own. If you and your partner are supporting your child鈥檚 application, your partner will also need to create or sign in to their own online account.
If you鈥檝e supported an application previously or you鈥檝e applied for student finance in the past, you should sign into your existing online account. Don鈥檛 worry if you鈥檝e forgotten your login details, you can reset them on the login page.
2. Give us your income details
You鈥檒l be asked to give us your National Insurance number to support an application, so we can get your income details from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
If you can鈥檛 find your National Insurance number, download the HMRC app to access it.
We鈥檒l use your household income for the tax year:
- 2023-24 if you鈥檙e supporting a student鈥檚 2025 to 2026 application
- 2022-23 if you鈥檙e supporting a student鈥檚 2024 to 2025 application
We use this tax year as it鈥檚 the most up to date information HMRC holds for everyone.
You鈥檒l need to let us know if you have:
- paid into private pensions
- made additional voluntary contributions
- children (other than the student) who depend on you financially
If you don鈥檛 have a National Insurance number, then you鈥檒l need to complete a paper form and provide supporting documents to show how much you鈥檝e earned.
Don鈥檛 send us a P60 instead of giving us your income details.
If you do and we haven鈥檛 asked for this, it will take us longer to process the student鈥檚 application. This means your child or partner might get less money than they were expecting at the start of their course.
What to do if you鈥檝e not got an email from us
You should still be able to link to the student鈥檚 application and give us your details online by typing in their Customer Reference Number. Follow the instructions on our 鈥榟ow to鈥� guide for help supporting a student finance application with your household income.
If you鈥檙e not able to link to the student鈥檚 application online
You can upload the PFF2 form to your account instead.
Supporting more than one student
If you鈥檙e supporting more than one student, you only need to give us your details once.
After you鈥檝e submitted your details online for one student, you should click the link in the email we鈥檝e sent to support the second student. We鈥檒l apply your details to their application automatically.
If you didn鈥檛 get an email for the second student you鈥檙e supporting, follow the steps in our 鈥榟ow to鈥� guide for help supporting a student finance application with your household income.
3. After you鈥檝e supported the application
Once you鈥檝e given us your details, it can take us 6-8 weeks to get your income from HMRC and work out how much the student can get. As soon as we鈥檝e done this, we鈥檒l let the student know.
If we need anything else from you, we鈥檒l email you to let you know.
Your child or partner can sign in to their online account and check the progress of their application.
Check out what to do if your income changes later in the year.
Updates to this page
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Update URL to form finder page
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Academic and financial years updated to remove 2023 to 2024 information and added in 2025 to 2026 information.
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Added guidance to let users know to wait a few hours and try again if link in email is not working.
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Links to 2024/25 forms have been added.
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Added link to HMRC app to find National Insurance number
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Updated to reference 2024 to 2025 applications
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Changed details in Step 2 as no longer required to type in income details. New process is to give us their NINO and HMRC will give us details of their income.
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Removed information on supporting an application if this has already been approved. Removed further information section as covered on linked page.
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Added guidance for supporting more than one student.
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Added section for sponsors trying to link to application already approved
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Updating information and guidance to support updated supporting process for the academic year 2022 to 2023. This includes advise around evidence requirements.
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Updated guidance to provide more information on how to support an application.
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Reference to deadline removed as these have passed
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First published.