Studying with a child is a different job from studying without one. The Scottish funding system knows that, and there are grants that exist only for students with children. They are not loans, you do not repay them, and a lot of eligible people never claim because nobody told them the money was there.

One warning before anything else, and please take it seriously. Every one of these amounts is set for a single academic year and changes. This page names the grants and explains who they are for. It deliberately does not print pound figures, because the only figures worth budgeting from are the current ones published by SAAS, and a number copied from a forum, a leaflet, or an old blog post is how people end up short in November. Get the rate from SAAS, in writing, for your year of entry.

Who administers what

Worth getting straight, because it decides who you chase when something goes wrong.

• SAAS handles the national grants for students in higher education, meaning HNC, HND and degree level. That is the Lone Parents’ Grant, the Dependants’ Grant and the Lone Parents’ Childcare Grant. Here is the trap that costs lone parents money every year. The Lone Parents’ Grant is applied for through SAAS as part of your main funding application, but the Lone Parents’ Childcare Grant is not. That one is a SAAS award administered by your college or university, and you apply for it through your own institution’s student funding or childcare team. If you tick the SAAS form and then wait, nobody is assessing your childcare claim, because it never reached the people who decide it. Ask your institution which form they want and by when.
• Your college or university handles the childcare funds and the discretionary and hardship funds. SPICe notes that students on higher education courses at college and university apply for discretionary funding through their institution, with the money routed to institutions via SAAS. The institution decides who gets it.
• Your college handles support if you are on a further education course rather than a higher education one. FE support is a bursary assessed and paid by your college. Since 1 August 2026 the funding behind it has been administered by the Student Awards Agency Scotland rather than the Scottish Funding Council, with guidance published through Student Information Scotland, but your application still goes to the college and the college still decides.

The Lone Parents’ Grant

A non-repayable grant for lone parents in higher education. mygov.scot lists it among the extra support available to lone parents at university, and it is paid through SAAS.

The point of it is that it recognises a lone parent’s costs are higher and their capacity to take on paid work is lower. It is money towards living, not towards childcare specifically. That is a separate grant, below.

What to check on the SAAS site before you apply: the current annual amount, whether it is income assessed, and whether it counts as part of your maximum funding package or sits on top of it. Those three answers together tell you what you will actually have.

The Dependants’ Grant

This one is broader than its name suggests, and it is the grant most often missed. It is for students who have someone financially dependent on them, which can mean a child but can also mean a partner or an adult relative who relies on your income.

It is income assessed, which means the amount you get depends on your household circumstances rather than being a flat payment. If you are a lone parent, look at whether you can hold this alongside the Lone Parents’ Grant, because the two do different jobs. Ask SAAS directly rather than assuming, since the interaction between the two is exactly the sort of detail that changes.

The Lone Parents’ Childcare Grant

Separate again, and specifically for the cost of registered childcare while you study. mygov.scot lists it alongside the Lone Parents’ Grant as support for lone parents at university, and it is administered by SAAS.

Practical points that catch people out with childcare grants generally:

• The childcare usually has to be registered and formal. Paying your mum is not normally claimable.
• You will be asked for evidence of the actual cost, so keep invoices from the nursery or childminder from day one.
• Money often arrives after you have paid, which creates a cash flow problem in the first weeks of term. Plan for that gap, and ask the provider whether they will invoice monthly in arrears.
• Check how it interacts with the funded early learning and childcare hours you may already get, and with any childcare element of Universal Credit.

Childcare funds at your college or university

On top of the national grants, institutions hold their own childcare funds and discretionary childcare funds. mygov.scot points students to these through their college or university.

Be clear about what this money is. Draw a line between two different pots here, because people lose money by confusing them. The Lone Parents’ Childcare Grant is an entitlement: if you are an eligible lone parent on a qualifying course, you get it, and it is not means tested. Your institution processes the claim, but it is not deciding whether you deserve it. The institution’s own childcare and discretionary funds are a different thing entirely. Those are cash limited, allocated at the institution’s discretion, and the rules are set locally. Apply for both, and do not let anyone tell you the entitlement is discretionary just because it arrives through the same office. That means what one university offers is not what another will, and a friend’s experience at a different institution tells you nothing reliable about yours. There is no national rate here and anyone quoting you one is wrong.

Because the pot is finite, timing matters more than it should. Apply early in the academic year, not when you are already in trouble. Our guide to hardship and discretionary funds covers how to write an application that actually gets paid, and the same approach works here.

Benefits, which are a separate system

Most full-time students cannot claim Universal Credit. Students who are parents are one of the exceptions, so do not rule yourself out on the general rule.

The complication is that these benefits are means tested and are affected by your student funding, as SPICe sets out. Your grants and loans can be counted as income and reduce what you get. That does not mean the claim is pointless. It means the arithmetic needs doing properly, by someone who does it for a living, before you assume either way.

Get that advice from your students’ association advice service, your institution’s funding team, or a Citizens Advice Bureau. All three are free. Do it before you enrol if you can, because your funding package and your benefit entitlement have to be looked at together.

What to do, in order

1. Apply to SAAS as early as the application window allows. Late applications mean late payments, and late payments hurt more when there are children involved.
2. Tick every dependant and lone parent box on the SAAS application. These grants are not automatic and they are not awarded to people who did not declare the circumstances.
3. Write down the current amounts from the SAAS site for your year of entry, with the date you checked.
4. Contact your institution’s student funding team in the same week and ask specifically about the childcare fund and the discretionary fund, and when applications open.
5. Get a benefits check done before term starts.
6. Keep every childcare invoice and receipt in one place.

Questions people actually ask

Do I have to pay any of this back?

The grants named here are grants, not loans, so no. The student loan that may sit alongside them is repayable in the normal way. Check on your SAAS award letter which parts are grant and which are loan, because the total can look bigger than the part you keep.

I am a student parent but not a lone parent. Is there anything for me?

Yes. The Dependants’ Grant is not restricted to lone parents, and institutional childcare funds and discretionary funds are open to student parents generally. The two lone parent grants are the ones you will not qualify for.

What if I am at college rather than university?

It depends on the level of your course rather than the building. On an HNC or HND you are in higher education and SAAS is your funding body, so the national grants apply. On a further education course, support comes as a college-administered bursary and college-held funds instead. College versus university in Scotland explains where the line falls.

Where do I find the actual figures?

SAAS at saas.gov.uk, for your specific year of entry, and mygov.scot for an overview of what exists. If a figure you have been given does not appear on one of those, treat it as a rumour. Ask your institution’s funding team to confirm anything you are unsure about, in writing.

Does having children affect my council tax?

Children under 18 are not counted as adults for council tax, so a full-time student parent living with young children is usually in an exempt household. See student council tax in Scotland.

Sources: mygov.scot support at university, SPICe (Scottish Parliament Information Centre) student support and fees briefings, and SAAS, which publishes the current rates. Amounts change every academic year, so confirm them with SAAS before you budget.