Advanced Learner Loan bulletin - January 2025

Important - January performance management review point

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has advised that you'll receive the outcome of the January review point on the week beginning 10 February.

If you’re awarded an increase to your loan facility, you’ll receive an updated contract. You must digitally sign this before ESFA tells us about the increase. Please do this as soon as possible.

If you return this by the stated deadline, you’ll see an increase on the Learning Provider Portal on 12 March. You can find further details in the Advanced Learner Loan funding rules guidance.

Birth or adoption certificates

We're pleased to confirm that we're now able to accept clear paper photocopies of a birth or adoption certificate for UK nationals. We also accept original versions of both, including duplicates of the original.

UK nationals with an in-date passport can still provide their passport number for us to perform a validation check with HMPO.

Advanced Learner Loans – Learning Provider forums

We'll be running a series of face to face forums in March 2025. In the forums, we'll reflect on the current academic year and look towards academic year 2025/26. We’ll consider how the FE sector is evolving and cover the latest policy and process updates.

You’ll have the opportunity to feed back on all areas of the Learning Provider forum, the SLC partnership and network with other providers. We'll gather insight to feed back to DfE, ESFA and other partners to share best practice.

The locations and dates for each forum are:

• Birmingham – 18 March
• Darlington – 19 March
• Bristol – 19 March
• London – 20 March
• Birmingham – 25 March
• St. Helens – 25 March
• London – 26 March
• Manchester – 26 March
• Darlington – 27 March

We'll provide more information on how to register in the week commencing 10 February.

Don't forget – February fixed quarter

The February fixed quarter drawdown deadline is Thursday 13 February.

You'll need to submit attendance confirmations by this date to ensure payment on Wednesday 19 February. This allows us to release payments for learners who have a positive attendance confirmation. It also ensures you remain compliant against the service standards. If you miss the drawdown date, we'll make payments the following month.

You should also submit any suspensions or withdrawals as soon as you can. This is to make sure learners are entering repayment at the correct time and their funding is in line with their true entitlement. It'll also help minimise overpayments.

Please see our drawdown calendar for all confirmation, drawdown and payment dates. There is more information about confirming attendance in the Learning Provider Portal user guide.

Maximum loan amounts for Advanced Learner Loans for academic year 2025/26

ESFA has confirmed that the maximum loan amounts for Advanced Learner Loans will remain unchanged for academic year 2025/26.

This information is available in the maximum loan amounts for ALL designated qualifications guidance.

There's been no decision made about maximum loan amounts beyond academic year 2025/26. This will receive consideration in the next phase of the Spending Review.

Partners Support Desk

Our Partners Support Desk is here to help you with any day to day operational questions about individual learners, application processing, payments and system issues.

You can contact the support desk on 0300 100 0643 or by emailing lpservices@slc.co.uk.