Scotland treats two groups of students differently from everyone else, and for once that is a good thing. If you have been in care at any point in your life, or if you are studying without any support from your parents because the relationship has broken down, the funding rules change in your favour. The money is bigger, the assessment is different, and some of it has nothing to do with how much anybody in your family earns.
The catch is that nobody hands it to you. You have to tick the right box on your application and send the right piece of paper. Plenty of students miss out because they did not think their situation counted.
Who counts as care experienced
Broader than most people expect. Care experienced means you have been looked after by a local authority at any point in your life, for any length of time. That includes foster care, kinship care with a relative or family friend, residential care, being looked after at home under a supervision requirement, and being adopted from care.
Two things people get wrong. It does not have to have been recent, and it does not have to have lasted long. Six months in kinship care when you were nine still counts. And the upper age limit that used to apply to the bursary in Scotland was removed back in autumn 2020, so a 43 year old going to college for the first time can still claim it.
The Care Experienced Students’ Bursary
If you are doing a higher education course, an HNC, HND or a degree, SAAS pays a Care Experienced Students’ Bursary. Scottish institutions and students’ associations quote it at £9,000 a year for recent years, and it is not income assessed, so no one asks what your parents or carers earn. It does not get repaid.
On top of that you can usually take a Special Support Loan of up to £2,400, which brings the package to £11,400 in total, with £9,000 of it non-repayable. The bursary is normally paid in monthly instalments rather than three big termly lumps, which for most people is easier to live on.
Rates are set nationally and can change from year to year, so confirm the current figure on saas.gov.uk before you build a budget around it. You can see how it sits against the standard package with our SAAS funding calculator.
If you are at college below HNC level
Further education funding works differently. SAAS is not involved. Your college pays your bursary, and the rates come from national further education bursary guidance published each year rather than from the college itself. One administrative change worth knowing, because college websites are lagging on it: since 1 August 2026 further education student support has been administered by the Student Awards Agency Scotland instead of the Scottish Funding Council, with the guidance now published through Student Information Scotland. You still apply through your college and your college still assesses you.
Care experienced students get a higher bursary rate than other further education students, and colleges publish the figure on their own funding pages. City of Glasgow College, for instance, states £9,000 for care experienced further education students plus travel costs if you live more than two miles from campus. Do not assume that exact figure applies everywhere or in every year. Ask your own college’s funding team what the current rate is and how it is paid.
What “estranged” means for funding
Estranged, in funding terms, means you no longer have contact with your parents or legal guardians because the relationship has permanently broken down. It is not about being annoyed with them, and it is not about living away from home. It is about there being no relationship to fall back on.
The practical effect is that you are assessed as an independent student. Your parents’ income is not counted, and you are not asked to chase them for payslips. You can also claim the Estranged Students’ Bursary, quoted by Scottish institutions at £1,000, alongside a living cost loan of up to £10,400. The bursary generally applies where you are under 25 at the start of your course and meet the residency conditions.
One question comes up constantly: what if you spoke to them once? A single piece of contact does not automatically end your claim. SAAS looks at those cases individually. Be honest about it rather than hiding it, because inconsistency is what causes problems later.
The evidence you will need
| Situation | Usual evidence |
|---|---|
| Care experienced, any route | A letter from your social worker or the local authority confirming you were looked after, with dates where possible |
| Adopted from care | Confirmation from the local authority or adoption records |
| Estranged | A supporting letter from a professional who knows your situation, for example a teacher, guidance teacher, social worker, GP, support worker or student adviser |
If you cannot get a social work letter because records are old or the authority is slow, say so early rather than letting the application sit. Widening participation teams and organisations that support care experienced students in Scotland do this every week and can often help you get the paperwork.
Where you live over the holidays
This is the part that keeps people awake. A standard student accommodation contract runs roughly 38 to 42 weeks, which assumes you have somewhere else to go in June, July and August. If you do not, that assumption is a crisis.
Two things exist to deal with it.
- Year-round accommodation. Several Scottish universities guarantee care experienced students university accommodation 365 days a year for the length of the course, and some also waive the need for a guarantor. Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow, Robert Gordon University and the University of the West of Scotland all publish commitments along these lines. Offers vary, so ask the accommodation team and the care experienced support team directly, in writing, before you accept a contract.
- A summer accommodation grant. SAAS pays a grant towards accommodation costs over the summer for eligible care experienced students. The amount depends on whether your accommodation arrangement over the summer is formal, such as a tenancy, or informal, such as staying with a friend, and the formal rate is the higher of the two. We are not printing figures here, because the rates we could find were quoted differently by different institutions and we could not confirm a current national amount from SAAS itself. Ask SAAS or your institution’s student funding team for the rate for your year before you plan around it. Check the current figures and the exact rules with SAAS, because this one is easy to miss the deadline for.
Three other things worth knowing
- Council tax. In Scotland, care leavers aged 18 to 26 are exempt from council tax, separately from the student exemption. That matters if you take a year out, drop to part-time, or finish your course before you turn 26. You have to apply to your council for it. More detail on our council tax and students page.
- Repeating a year. Care experienced students in Scotland have extra flexibility on funded years if a year goes wrong. Colleges describe this as the plus one rule. Ask before you withdraw from anything.
- Hardship money on top. The bursary does not stop you applying to your institution’s discretionary or hardship fund if you still cannot make the numbers work.
Short FAQ
Do I have to apply every year?
Yes. SAAS applications are annual, and the deadline sits at the end of March following the start of the academic year. Late applications can still be paid but you risk starting the year with nothing.
Will the bursary affect my benefits?
It can. Most full-time students cannot claim Universal Credit at all, but there are exceptions, including having a child or having limited capability for work. Special Support payments are treated differently from ordinary maintenance. Get an adviser to check your specific case.
I was in kinship care but it was never formal. Do I qualify?
It depends on whether you were legally looked after by the local authority. Informal family arrangements often do not count, but do not decide that yourself. Ask your college or university’s widening participation or care experienced adviser to check the records with you.
Can I be both care experienced and estranged?
Yes, and you would normally be assessed under the care experienced route because the support is larger. Tell SAAS about both.
Once you know what is coming in, work out whether it covers your rent with our student budget calculator, or browse everything on the calculators page.
Sources: saas.gov.uk support for care experienced and estranged students; gov.scot equality impact assessment on removal of the Care Experienced Bursary age cap; Scottish Funding Council further education bursary guidance; City of Glasgow College care experienced bursaries; University of the West of Scotland funding for Scottish students; Edinburgh University Students’ Association Advice Place undergraduate funding pages; mygov.scot council tax discounts, exemptions and reductions. Bursary rates are set nationally and change, so confirm the current year’s figures with SAAS or your college. Last checked August 2026.