For prospective university students, applying for student finance can often be a long and arduous process filled with long searches for documents and all the other information needed to secure funding for a Higher Education course. But HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are telling next year’s undergrads they can speed this up ‘quickly and easily’ by downloading their app.
In addition to paying voluntary contributions towards your National Insurance (NI) record and checking your taxes, the HMRC app can help the thousands of students who spend hours on helplines trying to find the information they need to get funding for their degree. Rather than phoning up HMRC to find their NI number, prospective students are being told to simply download the app.
HMRC received 112,000 calls to their helpline last year from people trying to find their NI number, almost half of which were from people aged 16 to 20. 6400 of these were in May alone, which is also typically the busiest month for student finance applications.
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Suzanne Newton, HMRC’s Director General for Change Delivery, said: “Getting your NI number is simple with a tap of HMRC’s app and young people should take advantage of it. Download the HMRC app today straight from your phone’s app store to get all the info you need quickly and easily.”
To find your NI number, prospective students have to download the app and register an account. From there they should be able to see all of their details, including the number they need to start their funding application.
This change could also prove useful when applying for help with living expenses, as how much a student receives is based on their household income, as well as they they will live when studying. Parents or the partners of mature students will also need to have their NI number to hand in order to process the application.
In addition to their NI number, student finance applicants will also need an email address, their own bank account, a valid passport, and the details of their course of study to register for funding.
Bill Watkin, Chief Executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “Downloading details from the HMRC app will speed up the process of applying for a student loan. Preparing for higher education can be a time-consuming process for sixth form students so we are pleased this will help to reduce the administrative burden on young people.”