Students Awards Agency for Scotland Lone Parents' Grant: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02774
Date received: 15 November 2017
Date responded: 24 November 2017

Information requested

You asked for:

1. The number of SAAS applicants who were eligible for a Lone Parents' Grant during the academic year beginning 2015 and ending 2016?

2. The number of students who received a Lone Parents' Grant during the academic year beginning 2015 and ending 2016?

3. The number of applicants who stated on their SAAS application that they had children to provide for during this time, regardless if their household income exceeded the threshold that would make them eligible for this grant?

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested:

1. We are unable to provide you with a figure for the number of students who were eligible to receive a Lone Parents' Grant because SAAS does not collect information on dependents from all students.

2. SAAS provided a Lone Parents' Grant for 2,495 students in 2015-2016.

3. According to our documentation, 2,575 students had a dependent aged under 16. As stated above, this is not a definitive number as not all students supply dependents data.

Please note that student numbers are rounded to the nearest 5.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses