You need to submit attendance confirmations by Thursday 13 May to ensure payment on Wednesday 19 May. This will allow us to release payments for learners who have a positive attendance confirmation.

If you confirm attendance after the drawdown date, we will make the payment the following month.

You should also submit confirmations of non-attendance and notifications of any change of circumstances as soon as you can. This will ensure learners enter repayment at the correct time and their funding matches their true entitlement.

For learners due to complete this academic year, this will be their final required attendance confirmation. You should make sure to check their end date before you confirm their attendance. You will not be able to amend end dates once the date has passed.

You can submit attendance confirmations from Monday 3 May.

Please see our payment and drawdown calendar for all confirmation, drawdown and payment dates.

If you need further information about submitting your attendance confirmations, please take a look at the Learning Provider Portal guidance.

Adult Education Budget funding changes

The Department for Education (DfE) has implemented 2 policy changes about expanding learner entitlement to Adult Education Budget (AEB) grant funding.

This may mean that certain learners can get AEB funding, rather than an Advanced Learner Loan, for a level 3 qualification.

The eligibility dates for new qualifications will not be backdated to the start of the academic year. However, if you identify a learner who has started a loan-funded course which was on the adult level 3 offer published list when they started, you should submit a change of circumstance on the ALL application to change the fee to zero. The application should remain approved rather than being withdrawn.

You can find more information in our Adult Education Budget funding changes factsheet. Please contact your ESFA Territorial Team Lead if you need further information on allocations and funding.

Repayment threshold change – 6 April 2021

The repayment threshold for Plan 2 customers (loans taken out from 1 September 2012) has increased to £27,295 effective from 6 April 2021.

This means that your learners will repay at a lower rate than the previous levels once they have completed their learning programme.

You can find more information about repayment thresholds on GOV.UK. There is also information about repayment on The Student Room, including tables that show how earnings affect monthly repayment amounts.

If you need any further information or guidance about this, please email our Funding Information Services team at fundinginformationpartners@slc.co.uk. However, please keep in mind that they will not be able to discuss specific learner accounts with you.