Claims Of Student Grants Fraud Being Examined

Fri, 05 Dec 2008

The government has ordered a crackdown on student grant fraud, according to reports in the Guardian.

In his recent pre-budget speech, Chancellor Alistair Darling said there are concerns that some students are making false claims on their university applications in order to qualify for thousands of pounds in grants .

According to the newspaper, the government has separate concerns that a loophole is allowing the children of wealthy non-domiciled British citizens to qualify for extra financial aid .

Students under the age of 25 are assessed on their family incomes at their home address. If the family's income is based abroad but the children are domiciled in the UK, they could be eligible for grants .

In response, the Student Loans Company (SLC) has established a pilot system in 11 regions of the UK to identify incidences of "income-related fraud within the student support system, with a particular focus on fraudulent grant claims", it was announced in the pre-budget report.

The SLC said it was looking at tightening up the applications process, with grant officers conducting spot checks on applications to ensure that students had not lied about any aspect.

However, the National Union of Students (NUS) said it did not believe a review by the loans company would identify mass fraud.

NUS president Wes Streeting said: "I would be astonished if there was evidence of widespread fraud in the system."

"We need to look very carefully at the issue of non-dom entitlement to make sure it's British taxpayers' money well spent. They use the non-dom status for mass tax evasion," he added.

"The idea that they could abuse their status to have a cheaper ride in the UK university system too is shocking. It needs to be addressed."
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