§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education if his Department will consider changing policy regarding parental contribution in relation to the Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations where a student is irreconcilably estranged from the parents.
§ Mr. BoswellThe Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations already allow for the parental contribution to be waived in certain circumstances, for example, where the student has been in the care of a local authority. Where a parent fails to provide information on which an assessment of a student's resources can be based, or refuses to make the assessed contribution, tuition fees will nonetheless be met as part of the student's mandatory award and his right to a student loan is unaffected. Students in financial 693W hardship may apply for help from their institutions' access funds. The accelerated shift in the balance of resources from grant to loan which my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced on 30 November 1993, Official Report, column 929, means that students are becoming progressively less reliant on the parental contribution for the means to support themselves.