SOCIAL MARKET FOUNDATION support available and what students need to cover their core costs is approximately £8,400 per year.72 The implicit assumption is that parents or guardians will make up the difference between government funding and the cost of living. Many care experienced students and all estranged students (by definition) will not have access to this additional parental support. Currently, those who are care experienced, or can demonstrate that they are an independent student on the basis of estrangement, will receive the maximum maintenance loan to reflect the lack of parental contribution. However, given that care experienced and estranged students are also the most marginal, and most unsure about pursuing higher education, and likely to be more debt-averse, it seems perverse that they should have to take on additional debt for circumstances outside of their own control. Given that the government has already signalled73 that maintenance support for students is an area that they would like to review, we would recommend prioritising reducing the debt burden for care experienced and estranged students. At a minimum, care experienced and estranged students should be provided a non-repayable grant reflecting an average parental contribution on top of which they can apply for a maintenance loan. In addition, student finance payments should cover 52 weeks of the year for care experienced and estranged students. Currently, if a student is studying a course that lasts longer than 30 weeks and three days they are able to apply for a Long Course Loan as well as their maintenance loan.74 However, most courses are less than 30 weeks and therefore maintenance loans are calculated and paid to only cover part of the year that the student is studying. Again, the implicit assumption is that, when not receiving maintenance funding, students return to their family homes. For care experienced and estranged students the issues of finding and financing accommodation during the summer months are well documented. Extending student finance as a non-repayable grant for these groups for the full 52 weeks of the year is necessary to ensure that they have access to safe and consistent accommodation throughout the year. Recommendation two – reform student finance to reflect the needs of care experienced and estranged students Student Finance England should: • Provide a non-repayable grant to care experienced and estranged students reflecting an average parental contribution on top of which they can apply for a maintenance loan. • Extend student finance pro rata as a non repayable grant for these groups to bridge the gap between study weeks and full 52 weeks of the year. Eligible groups: Care experienced, defined as those who have had experience with the care system at any point in their childhood, identified through local authority data; Estranged, identified through Student Finance. 50