AEB Funding Rules

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• Residency Eligibility
• Non EEA Citizens
• Asylum Seekers
• Individuals with Immigration Status and Their Family Members
• Family Members of EU and EEA Nationals
• Children of Turkish Workers
• Persons Granted Stateless Leave
• Individuals Not Eligible for Funding
• Learners in the Armed Forces

Residency Eligibility

Individuals will be eligible for ESFA funded AEB if they meet the criteria in paragraph 27, the learning is taking place in England, and they:

• Are a citizen of a country within the European Economic Area (EEA) or other countries determined within the EEA, including those with bilateral agreements such as Switzerland, or have settled status or the Right of Abode in the UK.
• Have been ordinarily resident in the EEA or other countries determined within the EEA, including those with bilateral agreements such as Switzerland, for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning.

The EEA includes all the countries and territories listed in Annex A.

The eligibility of individuals who do not meet the requirements in paragraph 36 is stated below.

Any learner or relevant family member who has applied for an extension or variation of their current immigration permission in the UK is still treated as if they have that leave. This only applies if the application was made before their current permission expired. Their leave continues until the Home Office decides on their immigration application. Their leave will continue where they have appealed or sought an administrative review of their case within the time allowed to them for doing so.

You can find further information on eligibility from the UK Council for International Student Affairs.

The learner's immigration permission in the UK may have a "No recourse to public funds" condition. Public funds do not include education or education funding. Therefore, this does not affect a learner's eligibility, which must be decided under the normal eligibility conditions.

Non-EEA Citizens

A non-EEA citizen is eligible for funding if they have permission granted by the UK government to live in the UK, which is not for educational purposes, and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least the previous 3 years before the start of learning.

Asylum Seekers

Asylum seekers are eligible to receive funding if they:

• Have lived in the UK for 6 months or longer while their claim is being considered by the Home Office, and no decision on their claim has been made, or
• Are receiving local authority support under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989 or the Care Act 2014.

An individual who has been refused asylum will be eligible if:

• They have appealed against a decision made by the UK government against granting refugee status and no decision has been made within 6 months of lodging the appeal, or
• They are granted support under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

Individuals with Certain Types of Immigration Status and Their Family Members

Any individual with any of the statuses listed below is eligible to receive funding and are exempt from the 3-year residency requirement rule:

• Refugee status
• Discretionary leave to enter or remain
• Exceptional leave to enter or remain
• Indefinite leave to enter or remain
• Humanitarian protection
• Leave outside the rules
• Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 leave
• Calais leave to remain
• The husband, wife, civil partner or child of any of the above

Family Members of EU and EEA Nationals

In the explanations below, the "principal" is the European Union (EU) or EEA national. The "family" or "family member" is the learner, and must be the husband, wife, civil partner, child, grandchild, dependent parent or grandparent of the "principal."

If the learner, who is a family member of an EEA national, has been ordinarily resident in the EEA for the 3 years prior to the start of their course, they are eligible for funding.

This table shows the eligibility for family members if:

• The family member is now ordinarily resident in England, but has not been ordinarily resident in the EEA for at least the previous three years before the start of learning, and
• A principal has been resident within the EEA for the last three years.

Children of Turkish Workers

A child of a Turkish worker is eligible if both the following apply:

• The Turkish worker is currently ordinarily resident in the UK and is, or has been, lawfully employed in the UK.
• The child has been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or Turkey for the full 3-year period before the start of their programme.

Persons Granted Stateless Leave

A person granted stateless leave is a person who:

• Has extant leave to remain as a stateless person under the immigration rules (within the meaning given in section 33(1) of the Immigration Act 1971);
• Has been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands throughout the period since the person was granted such leave.

A stateless person must:

• Be ordinarily resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course;
• Have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands throughout the 3-year period preceding the first day of the first academic year of the course.

Certain family members are also eligible under this category if:

• The spouse or civil partner of a person granted stateless leave (and who was the spouse or civil partner of that person on the leave application date), who is ordinarily resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course, and who has been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands throughout the 3-year period preceding the first day of the first academic year of the course; or
• The child of a stateless person or of the stateless person's spouse or civil partner (and who was the child of that stateless person or the child of the stateless person's spouse or civil partner on the leave application date), was under 18 on the leave application date, is ordinarily resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course, and has been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands throughout the 3-year period preceding the first day of the first academic year of the course.

Individuals Who Are Not Eligible for Funding

You must not claim funding for individuals who do not meet the eligibility criteria set out above. Examples of individuals who do not meet the eligibility criteria include:

• Those who are here without authority or lawful status.
• Those who are resident in the UK on a Tier 4 (general) student visa unless they are eligible through meeting any other of the categories described above.
• Non-EEA citizens who are in the UK on holiday, with or without a visa.
• Non-EEA citizens who are a family member of a person granted a Tier 4 visa, who have been given immigration permission to stay in the UK and have not been ordinarily resident in the UK for the previous three years on the first day of learning.
• Individuals who are ordinarily resident in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, unless they are also ordinarily resident within England.
• Those whose biometric residence permit or residence permit imposes a study prohibition or restriction on the individual.

Learners in the Armed Forces

We will fund armed forces personnel, Ministry of Defence (MoD) personnel, or civil and crown servants resident in England, who meet the criteria in paragraph 27, and where learning takes place in England. We will class members of the British armed forces on postings outside of the EU, including their family members, as ordinarily resident in the UK.

Members of other nations' armed forces stationed in England, and their family members, aged 19 and over, are eligible for ESFA funded AEB, as set out in paragraph 27, if the armed forces individual has been ordinarily resident in England for 3 years. We will not fund family members that remain outside of England.