Are you worried about the costs of studying at college?
**** APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2026/27 ***********
Apply for a College Bursary / Free College Meal here: https://stbrendans.paymystudent.com/portal/
The bursary fund aims to help students with the essential costs of participating in their study programme and therefore make education accessible for all. At St Brendan’s, the 16-19 bursary can provide support with travel costs, course specific kits and mandatory trips, supporting families on lower incomes and students that are in care or care leavers.
NEW in 26/27 - We will be able to offer all students on Universal Credit (and other eligible benefits) a Free College Meal due to a change in Government legislation. Please read the Free College Meals section below. Students with a household income below £30000 may also be eligible.
The following information breaks down the types of bursary that we can offer, the documents required, and how to apply.
16-19 Bursary - Who can apply?
If you have a need for financial support from the bursary and your parents/carers have a household income of less than £30000 per year (net) or they do not work, you could qualify. By net income we mean the amount earned after tax, national insurance and pension has been deducted.
We accept applications where:
- Parent / carers receive non-working benefits such as Universal credit.
- Parents/carers are employed/self-employed but also receive top up benefits. We welcome applications from households where the total household income is £30000 net per annum or lower when salary and benefits are combined. The way we calculate income can be found within the ‘How to apply’ section.
- Parents/carers are employed or self-employed and total household income from take home pay is less than £30000 after deductions, but no top up benefits are being claimed.
- Students who are in care or care leavers.
What can I get help with from the 16-19 bursary?
- Free Bus travel from primary address within the Bristol and West of England area for addresses more than 1.5 miles away from college.
- Help with compulsory course kits for subjects such as Fine Art, Textiles, Graphics & Photography and some essential items for A-level Maths and English.
- A printing allocation for subjects such as Fine Art, Photography, Product Design and Graphics where printing is considered essential.
- Payment of compulsory trips.
- UCAS fee payment
- A free meal allocation for households where household income is below £30000 but qualifying benefits are not being claimed.
- Free meals for households that meet free College meals criteria (details below)
Free College Meals - who can apply?
From the start of the 26/27 academic year, all students from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be entitled to a free meal on days where they are in college for more than one lesson. We will allocate funding to those eligible to enable them to obtain a meal at college. Any household that receives Universal credit can apply for a free meal.
Households that are eligible for free meals but not the bursary (due to level of household income) will need to apply through the Paymystudent system selecting option 1 using this link: https://stbrendans.paymystudent.com/portal/. Documents such as the latest 3 months Universal credit statements will need to be uploaded to confirm eligibility.
In addition to households on Universal credit, we can also consider the following benefits for a free College meal:
- Support under part six of the Immigration and Asylum act 1999
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Guaranteed element of Pension credit.
Bursary for vulnerable groups
We offer bursary support for students in defined vulnerable groups.
The defined vulnerable groups are students who are:
- in care
- care leavers
- receiving Income Support (IS), or Universal Credit (UC) because they are financially supporting themselves or financially supporting themselves and someone who is dependent on them and living with them, such as a child or partner
- receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payments (PIP) in addition to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or UC - all benefits must be received by the student, in their own right
As part of our assessment we will ask for confirmation of care status from the social worker / council.
Much like the discretionary bursary we need to show that there is a need for bursary help. Subject to there being a need for financial support, funding of up to £1200 may be available to be used towards the essential costs in participating in your study programme.
How to apply
New Students will be able to apply after they have enrolled at college in late August/early September and have a live profile on our system (please allow some time after enrolment for the profile to be set up. If you are unsuccessful at first attempt, please try again the next day).
At the start of the new academic year, we are very busy assessing applications and there will be delays. Get your application in as soon as possible after enrolment along with ALL the requested documentation so that you are at the front of the queue. Applications are dealt with strictly in date order.
Existing students can apply at any time in the academic year.
Year 12 / returning students will be invited to reapply for the next academic year in the June of their first year at college so that approved bursaries are in place for September. Priority will be given to given to new enrolling students in late August / September so returning students are encouraged to apply as soon as possible after applications are opened. Students that apply before the start of the new academic year will be asked to confirm that their circumstances have not changed in September before the bursary can be activated.
All applications need to be submitted online using PayMyStudent. To create an account, students will need their Student email address. The link to apply is as follows:
https://stbrendans.paymystudent.com/portal/
Students will need to provide some basic details and will be asked to upload specific documents providing details of household income. The documents that we need to see will depend on what type of income your family receives.
The Paymystudent system will ask whether you wish to apply for free meals only OR whether you want to apply for a full Bursary.
OPTION 1 – Select this option to apply for a free meal only. This applies to households on the benefits covered in the free meals section above regardless of household income. We anticipate this option to be chosen if total household income is over £30000.
OPTION 2 - (Full bursary) applies to all households where total household income is less than £30000.
Establishing total household income if in receipt of Universal credit
For most households receiving Universal Credit and earnings through work, we will undertake the following calculation to establish total household income:
Universal Credit award amount minus housing entitlement amount (showing on the first part of the statement) plus total earnings reported on the Universal Credit statement.
We will base our calculation on an average of the last 3 months Universal credit statements. This average will then be multiplied by 4 to give an annual total household income figure. To meet bursary criteria, the total must be below £30000.
Points of note:
- This formula will be adjusted if rent is paid directly to the landlord as part of the calculation.
- Where there is no housing entitlement showing on the Universal Credit statement, we will add Universal credit award amount to net salary to obtain a household income figure.
- Where Universal credit payment is lower than any housing allowance allocation we will assess income based on total salary only.
- If total is over £30000, you will still be eligible for a free meal and can apply requesting option 1.
What documents do I need to apply?
This does vary depending on individual household circumstances. The PayMyStudent system will prompt you to upload the documents that we need to see.
If your parents/carers are in receipt of Universal Credit you need to provide their last 3 monthly statements. We need to see the actual statements from start to end and not just the summary of payments.
If Parent/carers receive Universal Credit but also work, we will not need to see any other documents other than the Universal Credit statements as the Universal Credit statement confirms income derived from work.
In order to obtain the statements you will need to:
- Log in to your Universal Credit online account
- Go to ‘Payments’
- Click on the statement dates for the last 3 months and save each statement as a pdf.
A guide showing how to access a Universal Credit statement can be found by scrolling to the bottom of this page.
IMPORTANT:
Please submit Universal Credit statements in PDF format.
If you are unable to do this we can accept screenshots in exceptional circumstances however please ensure all information is captured within 3 screenshots per monthly statement. The information we need to see can be found in the image below.
A lot of applications are held up when only part of the Universal Credit statements are uploaded. Please ensure you have provided details of all financial information within the statements and there are no gaps in the information provided.
We need to have the latest 3 months complete statements even if all payments are the same. An example of what we need is shown below:
For all other benefits we will need to see ALL PAGES of the documentation that confirms the benefit. Due to the transition to Universal credit, we are not expecting many applications on older style benefits.
If your household does not claim benefits but has an income below £30000 (after tax, national insurance and pension) we will ask you to upload the following documents for all adults in the household:
- Last 3 months payslips.
- Latest P60
- If self-employed we will need HMRC confirmation of income level in the form of SA302’s /Tax returns.
We may also on occasion request additional documents based on an individual assessment of the application.
Students that received Pupil Premium at Secondary School
Pupil Premium ceases to exist post age 16. For any students that were on Pupil Premium, it is worth reviewing the bursary and free meals policy to see if you are eligible for support.
Other information
All bursary awards are dependent on students adhering to the Positive behaviour management policy, the student attendance and punctuality policy and the student learner agreement.
All bursary awards are subject to a student meeting 85% attendance. Bursary support can be affected if attendance goes below 85%. Mandatory trips and items may not be covered and if eligible for a bus ticket, this will be reviewed.
If you have any questions or need any help with your online application form please email:
