Introduction
The Residential Support Scheme (RSS) provides help with the accommodation costs of learners aged 16 and over, who need to live away from home to study because their course is not available locally. The RSS is managed by the Young People Learning Agency (YPLA) in conjunction with Department for Education (DfE) for 16-18 year olds and Business Innovation Skills (BIS) for 19+ year olds. The RSS is means tested, but can provide help towards residential living costs of up to £3,458 per year (£4,079 in the London area).
The normal conditions of this scheme mean that applicants must ordinarily be resident in England and have lived in England for the three years preceding the start of the course. This has caused problems for dependants who resided with a Service person in an overseas location, outside the UK. However, the MOD has worked with YPLA, DfE and BIS to resolve this disadvantage for certain Service families under the auspices of the Armed Forces Covenant.
DfE and BIS have agreed with the MOD to implement a policy change for new applications of RSS in the academic year 2011/12. This will enable young people whose parent(s), or spouse or civil partner, are members of the Armed Forces serving abroad (i.e. outside the UK) to access RSS in the current academic year if the course they wish to do is not available locally. There will be no retrospective action with regard to applications for 2011/12 which have previously been received and processed. The future of the RSS, beyond 2012/13, is subject to a review by DfE and BIS, who are currently reviewing learner support arrangements to consider the most effective way to deliver residential support in the future; however, the principal of no disadvantage for Service families overseas has now been accepted and the MOD will continue to seek measures to avoid disadvantage to Service families should the scheme be replaced in future.
The policy change will exempt students whose parent(s), or spouse or civil partner are serving in the Armed Forces from the current RSS residency criteria which requires students to be an ordinary resident in England and to have lived in England for the three years preceding the start of the course. For ease of reference, the RSS Criteria are set out below, with the Armed Forces exemption highlighted.
The criteria of RSS means the student must:
• be aged 16 or over;
• have a household income of £30,993 or less for the previous tax year;
• be offered a place on a full-time course of Learner Responsive
provision at Level 2 or Level 3 which is not available to them locally;
• be ordinarily resident in England and have lived in England for the
three years preceding the start of the course. If the student is the child, or the spouse or civil partner, of a person who a member of the Armed Forces serving abroad (i.e.: outside of the UK) they will be exempt from the requirements to be an ordinary resident in England for three years prior to the start of their course;
• plan to attend a course with a minimum duration of 10 weeks, and at least 15 hours attendance a week;
• be living in term-time lodgings that are no further than 15 miles from the Learning Provider campus. In the vast majority of cases, support should either be for the student’s first Level 2 or first Level 3 qualification. However, support for repeat qualifications will be provided in a small number of cases where:
• a young person aged 16–18 wishes to pursue a second Level 2 which is vocational, when their first Level 2 was not;
• the student is seeking to study a second Level 3 as preparation for entry into higher education, and the Level 3 course has an existing Level 3 qualification as an entry requirement.
In some exceptional circumstances support will be provided at Level 1.
How to Apply
To get a Residential Support Scheme application pack, call the Learner Support helpline on 0800 121 8989. Students must have an unconditional offer of a place before applying for RSS. Once all parts of the application have been completed it should be returned to the Learner Support Service in the pre-paid envelope provided to the following address:
Freepost RSLX-GSLZ-RBGE
Learner Support Service
Birmingham
B24 9FD
If you have any questions or need help completing the application form, the Learner Support helpline will be able to help.
Students to whom the new Armed Forces Residential Support Scheme exemption will apply, should include a letter from the Service person’s unit with their application, to confirm that their parent, spouse or civil partner is in the Armed Forces and is serving abroad, or has served abroad in the last 3 years. The Learner Support Service, who administers RSS, will request this from the student if it is not initially supplied.
In order to access RSS students must be undertaking provision which is not available locally. This will be checked by the Learner Support Service before the application is approved.
Learner Support 2012/13 onwards
Service families should be aware that it is expected that the RSS will be replaced by other schemes from academic year 2012/13 onwards, however both funding providers (DfE and BIS) have confirmed that students who are family members of the Armed Forces serving overseas who cannot undertake provision locally will be included in any future arrangements.
• for 16-18 year olds, DfE are reviewing their learner support arrangements and envisage that the ‘residential support’ and ‘residential bursary’ schemes will be replaced by a simpler means of supporting young people to access provision with a residential element and specialist provision that is not available locally.
• for 19+ year olds, BIS have confirmed that students will be able to apply directly to their training provider (college) for support from an enhanced Discretionary Learner Support budget.
Further Information
Further information of the Residential Support Scheme is available at this link.
