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Written question asked by Caroline Voaden (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 28 August 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 2 September 2026. It was answered by Josh MacAlister (Labour) on Friday, 4 September 2026 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Students: Finance

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of calculating parental income for Student Finance purposes before the deduction of carried-forward trading losses on self-employed households.

Answer

Entitlement to partially means-tested undergraduate loans for living costs is based on the income of the student’s household. The income used is the total income charged to tax as defined at step one of Section 23 of the Income Tax Act 2007, before reliefs for trade losses and other deductions are made by HMRC from step two onwards of Section 23.

The use of income charged to tax in the household income assessment applies a standard measure of income to calculate a student’s entitlement to living costs support and allows all students to be assessed consistently and fairly. It is not intended to be an exact calculation of disposable income for each household.

Information on income is available from HMRC and allows around 1.3 million assessments a year to be carried out quickly and efficiently each year by Student Finance England.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
24551
Session
2026-27
Subjects
Finance Students Self-employed
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk