16-18 Bursary

If you fall into one of the following categories, you will be eligible to apply for support from the 16-19 Bursary:

• Household meets the Free Meals in Further Education criteria.
• Household Income under £40,000.
• You are a young person who is living independently and in receipt of Universal Credit because you are financially supporting yourself, or financially supporting yourself and someone who is dependent on you and living with you, such as a child or partner.
• You are a young person in receipt of Universal Credit AND Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in your own right.
• You are a young person in care or leaving care.

• Travel support (If you live more than 1 mile from campus, unable to access the college bus service and public transport is a suitable option for your journey)
• Meal support - £5.50 for each day you are timetabled to attend college
• Essential equipment and compulsory trip support
• Access to a loaned laptop (Limited availability – allocated on a first come, first served basis)

• Students must read the eligibility criteria prior to submitting an application.
• Students must befully enrolled on their 2026/27 course before they can access the PayMyStudent system at West Lancashire College Online Student Portal
• New Students:
  • If you are a new student for 2026/27, you must complete Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) before submitting an application. (LINK for students to access: microsoft-mfa-guide-for-students.pdf)
  • MFA can be completed 6 hours after enrolment.
  • You must complete MFA before using “Sign in with Microsoft” or the system will not recognise your login.

• Returning Students:
• Login to PayMyStudent via the “Sign in with Microsoft” button.

* 16-18 Discretionary Bursary also includes funding for 19 year old continuers and 19-24 year old students with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.

You may be eligible to receive travel support through your local authority. Please enquire directly with your local authority to see if you are eligible for travel support before applying for Learner Support Funds.

For those learners who cannot travel on the college bus service you may be eligible for a travel pass if you live more than 1 mile away from campus (household income criteria dependent). On application, you will be assessed for the most appropriate travel pass, and in some circumstances it may be deemed more suitable for you to receive a train support payment. This decision will be made by NCG and is non-negotiable. Where cash payments are awarded, students MUST retain all travel receipts and submit them in line with a submission schedule or they will not be eligible to receive payments.

Your application may take up to four weeks to be processed, as we require sufficient verification of attendance from college registers, and time for the travel companies to process a travel support request.

You are responsible for any travel costs until your support is in place. Please be aware that your total travel cost may not be covered.

You will be able to access a £5.50 entitlement on the cashless system to purchase a meal on the days that you are timetabled to attend college.

If you are attending a satellite site or placement where there is no catering facilities we will award an alternative support.

You will be able to access to items that Course leaders have identified are essential to your study programme. Equipment will need to be returned on completion of your course.

Some courses may also have compulsory trips designed to enhance your learning experience, you may have access to funding which supports you to attend these trips.

Laptop Loan

If you do not have access to a laptop or computer, you may have access to our laptop loan service.