Learner Eligibility, Funding and Fees

Learner Eligibility, Funding and Fee Policy 2024-25

Introduction

Staffordshire County Council’s Community Learning Service receives Adult Skills funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to deliver learning to Staffordshire residents aged 19 and over. We deliver some learning directly and we sub-contract some learning via local partners.

Purpose

This policy explains the eligibility criteria and fee policy for provision from 1st August 2024 to 31st July 2025, in line with the ESFA funding rules.

Sub-contracted partners can adopt this Staffordshire Community Learning Policy or can apply their own Fee Policy if this is in line with the ESFA funding rules 2024-25¹. Sub-contractors must make their Fee Policy available to potential learners before they enrol.

Eligibility

Staffordshire County Council and sub-contracted partner staff must check and confirm your identity and eligibility when you enrol for a course. The staff responsible for this will ask to see an identification document e.g.: driving licence, passport, residence permit. They must check your eligibility against the following criteria, covering availability to learn, age, residency and citizenship.

Availability: You must be able to achieve the learning aim or programme of study within the time you have available, i.e. you must be able to commit to attending the full course.

Age: You must be aged 19 or older on 31st August 2024 (unless you are a parent aged under 19 and enrolling on a Family Learning course).

Staffordshire Residency: You must be living in a Staffordshire district: East Staffordshire, Cannock, Lichfield, Tamworth, South Staffordshire, Stafford, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Staffordshire Moorlands.

National Residency and citizenship: You must fulfil the residence and citizenship eligibility criteria in one or more of the following categories:

a) UK national and family members, or Irish national or other person with right to abode in the UK, if you have lived:

• in the UK, British Overseas territories or Crown Dependencies (or Ireland) for the previous 3 years
  or
• in the EEA, Switzerland or EU overseas territories² by the 31st December 2020 and for the last 3 years

b) EEA and Switzerland nationals who have obtained either pre-settled or settled status under EUSS³ and have lived continuously in the EEA, Switzerland, Gibraltar, or the UK for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning.

c) Family member of b) if they have obtained pre-settled or settled status under EUSS and the EU national (principal) has obtained pre-settled or settled status under EUSS and has been ordinarily resident in the UK, EEA and/or Switzerland for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning

d) Non-UK nationals who have been resident for at least the previous 3 years in the UK and Islands, and have permission to live in the UK not for educational purposes, or have pre-settled or settled status under EUSS.

e) A person who, on the first day of learning, has lived in the UK half their life or a period of 20 years or more, has an eligible residency status.

f) Ordinarily resident in the UK but work outside England for example, members of British Armed forces and their family members.

g) Individuals with certain types of immigration status and their family members (with exemption from the 3-year residency rule).

See Appendix A for more details of eligibility related to immigration status (point g above).

Fees and Remissions

Non-accredited courses

There are no course fees if you meet the eligibility requirements above and are enrolling on a non-accredited course in any of the following curriculum areas:

1. Wellbeing and Independence
2. Community and Family Progression
3. English, Maths and Digital
4. STEM and Vocational

If you do not meet the eligibility requirements above, we charge a fee of £10.00 per guided learning hour, to cover our costs, as we are not able to claim funding from the ESFA for your enrolment.

Accredited courses

If the course is accredited, and you do not meet the eligibility requirements above, we will charge you a fee of £10.00 per guided learning hour, plus assessment costs, to cover our costs, as we are not able to claim funding from the ESFA for your enrolment.

If the course is accredited and you do meet the eligibility requirements above, we will charge you fees that are calculated at a rate of £5.00 per guided learning hour, plus assessment costs. Please note that we may also charge resit assessment costs, and a charge for a reprint of an accredited certificate, if needed.

However, if you meet the eligibility requirements, and you can provide evidence that your gross income is less than £25,000 per year (2,083.34 per month), we will apply 100% fee remission and you will not be charged any fees.

In addition, regardless of income, no fees are payable for:

• Learners enrolling on an Essential Digital Skills Qualification, up to and including level 1 and have digital skills assessed as below level 1.
• Learners enrolling on an English and/or maths qualification course, up to and including level 2, who have not previously attained a GCSE grade 4 (C), or higher, and/or
• Learners enrolling on a first full qualification at level 2 or 3 for individuals aged 19 to 23

Evidence requirements

If we offer you a fee remission, we will require you to provide evidence of your income. This could be a wage slip or a Universal Credit statement within 3 months of the learning start date, or a current employment contract which states gross monthly/ annual wages.

As part of your enrolment, we will ask you to declare if you are unemployed and looking for work, and if you are receiving:

• Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
  or
• Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
  or
• Universal Credit (UC)

Further information on funding, remission and evidence can be found in the ESFA Funding rules.⁴

Reimbursement of fees

Fee refunds are at our discretion.

Any fees paid will only be refunded to individuals in the following circumstances:

• if we cancel the course
• if the learner is unable to complete the course for an unavoidable reason e.g. severe illness and has attended less than 50% of the course

Fees are refunded by cheque or BACs within one month of the course cancellation date.

Queries

Any queries regarding fees should be emailed to: communitylearning@staffordshire.gov.uk or you can telephone us on 01785 278770

Policy reviewed: June 2024

Next review due: by 31/7/2025

Appendix A

Definitions

A “family member” for these purposes is either:

• the husband, wife, civil partner of the UK national (principal) or
• the child, grandchild, spouse/civil partner’s child or spouse/civil partner’s grandchild of the principal, who is either
• under 21, or
• dependant on the principal and/or his/her spouse/civil partner

Individuals with certain types of immigration status and their family members

You have an eligible residency status and are exempt from the 3-year residency requirement rule, if you have any of the statuses listed below, or leave under the listed schemes. In these cases, you must show our staff evidence of your immigration permission. This would include your biometric residence permit (BRP) and in some cases an accompanying letter from the Home Office. You must have been ordinarily resident in the IL since you were granted the leave.

1. refugee status
2. humanitarian protection
3. discretionary leave to enter or remain
4. extant leave to remain as a stateless person
5. leave outside the immigration rules
6. the husband, wife, civil partner or child (aged under 18 on the date of asylum application) of either partner of anyone in the first 5 bullet points of this list
7. persons granted leave under one of the Ukraine schemes: 

   a. individuals with leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme

   b. individuals with leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine)

   c. individuals with leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Ukraine Extension Scheme

   d. individuals with leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme

8. persons granted leave under one of the Afghan schemes: 
   • individuals with leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS)
   • individuals with leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP)
   • British Nationals evacuated from Afghanistan under Operation Pitting
   • British Nationals evacuated from Afghanistan by the UK government before 6 January 2022
9. Individuals with indefinite leave to remain or enter granted:
   • as a victim of domestic abuse where they have been ordinarily resident in the UK since they were given leave to remain [footnote 1]
   • as a bereaved partner, where they have been ordinarily resident in the UK since they were given leave to remain or enter [footnote 2]
   • under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 leave [footnote 3]
   • under Calais leave to remain [footnote 4]

Children of Turkish workers

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

• the Turkish worker is ordinarily resident in the UK on or before 31 December 2020 and has Turkish European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) rights or extended ECAA leave and
• the child has been ordinarily resident in the UK, EEA and/or Turkey for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of learning and is resident in the UK on or before 31 December 2020

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 for themselves under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  or
• are receiving local authority support for themselves under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989

Members of other nations’ armed forces stationed in England, and their family members, aged 19 and over, are eligible for ESFA funded ASF, set out in the who we fund section, if the armed forces individual has been ordinarily resident in England for the previous 3 years on the first day of learning. We will not fund family members that remain outside of England.

Appendix B

This Annex sets out the countries falling within the below categories as referenced in the residency eligibility section.

British Overseas Territories

• Anguilla
• Bermuda
• British Antarctic Territory
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Falkland Islands
• Gibraltar
• Montserrat
• Pitcairn, Henderson Island, Ducie and Oeno Islands
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Isles
• St Helena and its dependencies (Ascension and Tristan da Cunha)
• Turks and Caicos Islands

EEA

The EEA comprises of the following countries:

• All Member States of the European Union

You can access a list of member states on the EU website.

• With respect to EEA nationality, note that any Cypriot national living on any part of the island qualifies for EU residency and is considered an EU national
• Iceland
• Lichtenstein
• Norway

The table below lists territories that are categorised as being within the EU and or territories that are categorised as being part of the listed countries such that they satisfy our residency requirements for the purposes of the AEB funding rules.

Denmark

The following is part of Denmark:

• Greenland
• Faroe Islands

Finland

The following is part of Finland and the EU:

• Aland islands

France

The following is part of France and the EU:

The French Overseas Department (DOMS):

• Guadeloupe
• Martinique
• French Guiana (Guyana)
• Reunion
• Saint-Pierre and Miquelon

The following is part of France:

• New Caledonia and its dependencies
• French Polynesia
• Saint Barthélemy

Germany

The following is part of Germany and the EU:

• Tax-free port of Heligoland

Netherlands

The following is part of the Netherlands:

• Antilles: Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, St Eustatius and St Maarten
• Aruba

Portugal

The following is part of Portugal and the EU:

• Madeira
• The Azores

Spain

The following is part of Spain and the EU:

• the Balearic Islands
• the Canary Islands
• Ceuta
• Melilla

To note: Andorra, Macau, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican are not part of the EU or the EEA.

References

1. Adult skills fund: funding rules 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
2. See Appendix B for list of EEA and EU Overseas territories
3. Apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (settled and pre-settled status): Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
4. Adult skills fund: funding rules 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Footnotes

1. As defined in the Immigration Rules Appendix “Victim of Domestic Abuse” on GOV.UK.
2. As defined in the Immigration Rules Appendix “Bereaved Partner” on GOV.UK.
3. A child of a person who has received leave under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 will come under this bullet point where they have been granted “leave in line” by virtue of being a dependent child of such a person.
4. A child of a person who has received Calais leave to remain will come under this bullet point where they have been granted “leave in line” by virtue of being a dependent child of such a person.