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 in the residency eligibility section
• 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
• Repeating the same regulated qualification where the learner has previously achieved it. The exceptions are that it is for any GCSE where the learner has not achieved grade 4 (C) or higher, or for English and maths where the learner has been assessed as having an existing skill level lower than grade 4 (even if they have previously achieved a GCSE or equivalent qualification in English or maths)
• They are learners who are to sit or resit a learning aim assessment or examination where no extra learning takes place

Most individuals will be eligible for funding if they:

• Are individual’s resident in areas of England outside of devolved authority areas
• Are aged 19 or older on 31 August within the academic year that they are studying or are aged 16 to 18 in that academic year
• Fulfil the residency requirements that are set out in one or more of the categories found in the residency eligibility section:

Individuals will be eligible for funding if they meet the criteria in the who is funded section, the learning is taking place in England and they are ordinarily resident in the UK on the first day of learning.

Individuals who are not eligible for funding

You must not claim funding for individuals who do not meet the eligibility criteria set out in the residency eligibility section. Examples of individuals who do not meet the eligibility criteria include the following. Please note this list is not exhaustive:
• those who are here without authority or lawful status
• those who are resident in the UK on a student visa
• those who are in the UK on holiday, with or without a visa
• those who are in the UK on a sponsorship visa
• those whose biometric residence permit or residence permit imposes a study prohibition or restriction on the individual

Learners with limited length visas

Providers must not fund learners who would not have enough time on their visa to complete their course and who do not intend to, or would not be eligible to, renew their visa. Where a course continues past a learner’s visa expiry date, providers may at their discretion fund that learner only where they have a high degree of confidence that a learner intends to (and will be eligible to) renew their visa.

Learners who have applied for an extension or variation of their immigration permission

Any person 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 decides 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 person 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 on this status.
This is on the basis that the provider confirmed at enrolment that the learner intended to and will be eligible to renew their visa.

EEA and Switzerland frontier workers

An EEA or Switzerland frontier worker is someone who is employed or self-employed in the UK who resides in the EEA or Switzerland and returns to that residence in the EEA or Switzerland at least once a week.
Unlike other categories, a frontier worker or their eligible family member does not have to be resident in the UK on the first day of learning in order to have an eligible residency status.

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

No recourse to public funds conditions

The learner’s immigration permission in the UK may have a ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition. Public funds does not include education or education funding. Therefore, this does not affect a learner’s eligibility, which must be decided under the normal eligibility conditions.

Learners in the armed forces

British armed forces personnel, Ministry of Defence personnel or civil and crown servants resident in England, who meet the criteria in the who we fund section, are eligible for DfE funded ASF where learning takes place in England.
Members of other nations’ armed forces stationed in England, and their family members, aged 19 and over, are eligible for DfE funded ASF, set out in the who we fund section, if the armed forces individual is ordinarily resident in England on the first day of learning. We will not fund family members that remain outside of England.

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 Department for Education (DfE) co-funding rules.

• ‘Fully Funded’ – the course is free to learners and is fully subsidised by the DfE.
• ‘Co-funded’ – the learner pays the advertised fee which is subsidised by the DfE.
• ‘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 Leicester Adult Education.
• ‘Not funded’ – The course costs will be the full DfE listed funded fee for the qualification or, for Community Learning, £12.00 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
• receive Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• receive Universal Credit (UC), and their take-home pay as recorded on their UC statement (disregarding UC payments and other benefits) is less than £952 a month (learner is sole adult in their benefit claim) or £1534 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 (not included in the list above) and their take-home pay (disregarding UC payments and other benefits) is less than £952 a month (learner is sole adult in their benefit claim) or £1534 a month (learner has a joint benefit claim with their partner)
• are not receiving any benefits, wants to be employed, and you are satisfied identified learning is directly relevant to their employment prospects and are under the earnings threshold.

We will fully fund learners who are taking qualification courses who are employed, or self-employed, up to and including level 2 and the level 3 offers.

• The learner is eligible for co-funding.
• The learner earns less than £25,750 annual gross salary.
• We have seen evidence of the learner’s gross annual wages that supports this. This could be a wage slip or a Universal Credit statement within 3 months of the learner’s learning start date, or a current employment contract which states gross monthly/annual wages.

Full level 2

Full level 2 is the level of attainment which, is demonstrated by:

a GCSE in 5 subjects, each at grade 4 (C) or above, or
a Technical Certificate at level 2 which meets the requirements for the 16 to 19 performance tables

Full level 3

Full level 3 is the level of attainment which is demonstrated by a:

• General Certificate of Education at the advanced level in 2 subjects
• General Certificate of Education at the AS level in 4 subjects
• QAA Access to Higher Education (HE) Diploma at level 3
• Technical, or applied general qualification at level 3, which meets the requirements for the 16 to 19 performance tables
• Core maths at level 3