Regulation 22 Payment of loansI1

The Scottish Ministers may pay loans for which an eligible student has applied under this Part at such times and in such number of instalments (which need not be of equal amounts) as they consider appropriate.

Paragraphs (3) to (12) apply to loans issued under regulation 11 (students eligible for student loans).

The Scottish Ministers may make provisional payments pending the final calculation of the amount of loan for which the student is eligible.

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Payments may be made in such a manner as the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate, and they may make it a condition of entitlement to payment that the eligible student must provide them with particulars of a bank or building society account in the United Kingdom into which payments may be made by electronic transfer.

Subject to regulation 16 (transfers of eligibility), no instalment is to be paid after an eligible student has withdrawn from, abandoned or been expelled from their course.

No instalment is to be paid in respect of a period during any part of which an eligible student is absent from their course if attendance at the course is a requirement of it, unless in the opinion of the Scottish Ministers in all the circumstances it would be appropriate to pay all or part of the loan.

In deciding whether it would be appropriate to pay all or part of the loan when an eligible student is absent from their course, the circumstances which the Scottish Ministers will have regard to include the reasons for the student’s absence, the length of the absence and the financial hardship which not paying all or part of the instalment of loan would cause.

An eligible student is not considered to be absent from their course if that student is unable to attend due to illness and their absence has not exceeded 60 days.

If the payment of instalments has been suspended and before the end of the academic year the eligible student commences undertaking their course again the Scottish Ministers may pay further instalments but so that the amount lent in relation to that year does not exceed such amount as the Scottish Ministers in all the circumstances consider appropriate.

Where the Scottish Ministers have paid any instalment of loan and the eligible student applies for an additional loan in respect of an academic year, the Scottish Ministers will pay the first instalment as soon as is reasonably practicable after a satisfactory application has been received and any subsequent instalments with instalments already payable.

Where the Scottish Ministers have paid an instalment of loan for which a student is eligible in respect of an academic year and they make a determination that the amount of loan for which the student is eligible is less than the amount previously determined, either by way of revision of a provisional determination or otherwise—