Vol. 486 No. 1
888 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will allow independent mature students to receive the non-adjacent rate of maintenance where, in the year prior to taking up study, they resided in a place more than 15 miles away from their place of study. [1617/98]
Under the terms of the higher education grants scheme, an independent mature student is defined to mean a mature student who is not ordinarily resident at home with his or her parents. Independent mature students are deemed to be self-supporting and are assessed without reference to either their parents' income or address.
An independent mature student's residence for the purpose of determining the rate of grant payable under the scheme is their residence for the purpose of attending college. If this address is within 15 miles of the college the adjacent rate of grant (£647 maximum) is payable. If the address is more than 15 miles from the college the non-adjacent rate (£1,624) is payable.
Where independent mature students can produce evidence that they are maintaining a residence other than their address while attending college and the non-college residence is more than 15 miles from the college it is open to the local authority to regard that address as the normal residence and to award a non-adjacent maintenance grant.
I am aware of the particular difficulties facing mature students and I am reviewing the position of independent mature students in the context of the 1998 higher education grants scheme.
