Fees and Eligibility

Funding is not available for any individual if any of the following apply.

• those who are here without authority or lawful status
• those who are resident in the UK on a student visa unless they are eligible through meeting any other of the categories described below
• those who are in the UK on holiday, with or without a visa
• those who are a family member of a person granted a student visa, who have been given immigration permission to stay in the UK and have not been ordinarily resident in the UK for the previous 3 years on the first day of learning
• those whose biometric residence permit or residence permit imposes a study prohibition or restriction on the individual

Most individuals will be eligible for funding if they:

• are individual’s resident in areas of England outside of devolved authority areas and fulfil the residency requirements set out in one or more of the following categories:
UK nationals and other persons with right of abode
• Are UK nationals or other person with a right of abode and they: have been ordinarily resident in the UK or British Overseas Territories or Crown Dependencies (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning
UK nationals in the EEA
• are UK nationals and
• are living in the EEA on or before 31 December 2020 (or have moved back to the UK immediately after living in the EEA); and
• have lived in the EEA, Gibraltar or the UK for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning and
• have lived continuously in the EEA, Gibraltar or the UK between 31 December 2020 and the start of the course

EEA nationals in the UK
• with respect to EEA nationals not including Irish nationals, have obtained either pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and
• have lived continuously in the EEA, Gibraltar or UK for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning

Other non-UK nationals
A non-UK national who:
• has permission granted by the UK government to live in the UK and such permission is not for educational purposes only, or
• has been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning
A non-UK national who is also a non-EEA national and:
• has obtained pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and
• has been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning
An Irish national and:
• who is not also a UK national and
• has been ordinarily resident in the UK and/or Ireland for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning

Family members of UK and EEA nationals
A ‘family member’ is the husband, wife, civil partner, child, grandchild, dependent parent or grandparent of a UK or EEA national. A family member is eligible for funding if they:
• where required to do so, have obtained pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and
• have been ordinarily resident in the UK and/or EEA for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning

Individuals with certain types of immigration status and their family members
Any individual with any of the statuses listed below, or leave under the listed schemes, is eligible to receive funding and is exempt from the 3-year residency requirement rule:
• Refugee status
• Discretionary leave to enter or remain
• Exceptional leave to enter or remain
• Indefinite leave to enter or remain
• Humanitarian protection
• Leave outside the rules
• Ukraine Family Scheme
• Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine)
• The husband, wife, civil partner or child of any of the above in the first 8 bullet points in this list
• Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 leave
• Calais leave to remain
• British Nationals evacuated from Afghanistan under Operation Pitting
• British Nationals evacuated from Afghanistan by UK government before 6 January 2022
In relation to the above categories, you must have seen the learner’s immigration permission. This would include the biometric residence permit (BRP) and in some cases an accompanying letter from the Home Office.
Extension or variation of current immigration permission
Any learner or family member who has applied for an extension or variation of their current immigration permission in the UK is still treated as if they have that leave. This only applies if the application was made before their current permission expired. Their leave continues until the Home Office decide on their immigration application. Their leave will continue where they have appealed or sought an administrative review of their case within the time allowed to them for doing so.
Therefore, a learner or family member is considered to still have the immigration permission that they held when they made their application for an extension, administrative review or appeal, and their eligibility would be based upon this status.
The learner’s immigration permission in the UK may have a ‘No recourse to public funds’ condition. Public funds do not include education or education funding, so this does not affect a learner’s eligibility, which must be decided under the normal eligibility conditions.
Asylum seekers
Asylum seekers are eligible to receive funding if they:
• have lived in the UK for 6 months or longer while their claim is being considered by the Home Office, and no decision on their claim has been made, or
• are receiving local authority support under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989 or the Care Act 2014
An individual who has been refused asylum will be eligible if:
• they have appealed against a decision made by the UK government against granting refugee status and no decision has been made within 6 months of lodging the appeal, or
they are granted support for themselves under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, or
are receiving local authority support for themselves under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989
• they have lived in the UK for six months or longer while their claim is being considered by the Home Office, and no decision on their claim has been made
or
• they are in the care of the local authority and are receiving local authority support under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989 or section 21 of the National Assistance Act 1948 A114.
An individual who has been refused asylum will be eligible if:
• they have appealed against a decision made by the UK government against granting refugee status and no decision has been made within six months of lodging the appeal
or
• they are granted support for themselves under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
or
• they are in the care of a local authority and are receiving local authority support for themselves under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989.
Learners not eligible for funding will be charged the full fee. Priority will be given to learners eligible for funding.

Part Two: What is funded?
Adult Education courses are for learners aged 19+, however funding is available for 16-18-year olds on some accredited courses. Please ask for details.
Fee remission is available in accordance with ESFA co-funding rules.
• ‘Fully Funded’ – the course is free to learners
• ‘Co-funded’ – the learner pays 50% of the full fee
• ‘Loan funded’ – the learner pays 100% of the full fee and can apply for an Advanced Learning Loan. Learners in receipt of a loan who withdraw before the end of the course will be liable to pay the balance of the fees owed directly to LASALS.
• ‘Not funded’ – the course costs the listed full fee for the qualification or, for Community Learning, £5.50 per hour plus any materials / model costs.

For funding purposes, we define a learner as unemployed if one or more of the following apply

• They receive Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), including those receiving National Insurance credits only
• They receive Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• They receive Universal Credit, and their take-home pay as recorded on their Universal Credit statement (disregarding Universal Credit payments and other benefits) is less than £345 a month (learner is sole adult in their benefit claim) or £552 a month (learner has a joint benefit claim with their partner)
• Are released on temporary licence, studying outside a prison environment, and not funded by the Ministry of Justice
• Receives other state benefits and their take home pay (disregarding Universal Credit payments and other benefits) is less than £345 a month (learner is sole adult in their benefit claim) or £552 a month (learner has a joint benefit claim with their partner) and wants to be employed, or progress into more sustainable employment, and the learning is directly relevant to their employment prospects and the local labour market needs

We will fully fund learners who are employed and cannot contribute towards the cost of co-funding fees, if we are satisfied the following applies

• The learner is eligible for co-funding
• The learner earns less than £18,525(£20,319 from 1 April 2023) annual gross salary
• We have seen evidence of the learner’s gross annual wages that supports this. This could be a wage slip within 3 months of the learner’s learning start date, or a current employment contract which states gross monthly/annual wages.

As part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, a targeted level 3 adult offer has been developed to support adults without an existing full level 3 qualification and, from 1 April 2022, adults who meet the definition of ‘low wage’ or ‘unemployed’. This offer is also known as the free courses for jobs offer.

The offer includes level 3 qualifications which will support the development of new skills for adult learners and improve the prospects of eligible adults in the labour market. In particular, eligible adults aged 24+ can now access fully-funded level 3 provision from the list of level 3 free courses for jobs qualifications

We will fully fund individuals as part of this offer where they:

• are aged 19 or above on 31 August within the 2022 to 2023 funding year
• have not achieved a full level 3 qualification, or above, which meets the requirements set out in the full level 3 section
• have not achieved a qualification available through the level 3 adult offer, unless that qualification is a short qualification
• enrol on the level 3 adult offer qualifications approved for funding with effect from 1 April 2021

From 1 April 2022, we will also fully fund individuals as part of the offer where they:

• meet the unemployment or learners in receipt of low wage criteria and
• if they already have an existing full Level 3 qualification or higher, or have achieved any other qualification included in the level 3 adult offer qualifications list (DfE list of qualifications approved for funding), that qualification must have been achieved before 1 April 2021 or
• if they have achieved a short qualification as set out below, and that was achieved after 1 April 2021, the individual is eligible for one further qualification through the offer