Student support
Although payment of your student loan can be suspended after 60 days’ absence because of ill health, Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) has the discretion to continue to pay you until the end of the academic year.
Your college or university should tell SAAS the reason you have suspended your studies.
If you need to repeat a year for health reasons, discretionary repeat-year funding may be available. Alternatively, you may get funding for one extra year for whatever reason, although this depends on your previous study.
If you select the repeat-year funding box on your application, SAAS contacts you to tell you if it needs additional information.
If you take time out from your course because of ill health and are not paid a student loan during this time, the unpaid student loan does not count as ‘notional’ income when calculating your ESA.1Reg 137(4A) ESA Regs For UC and HB, the unpaid loan is arguably not counted as ‘notional’ income, because payment of it is discretionary.