Student Carers Support

“A student who cares, unpaid, for a family member or a friend who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support.” Please note that these duties would be in addition to the usual caring responsibilities that a parent would have for a dependent child, unless the dependent child has a serious illness, mental health problems or disabilities.

The range and scale of caring will vary greatly but may include:

• Practical tasks, such as cooking, housework and shopping. 
• Physical care, such as helping someone out of bed. 
• Personal care, such as helping someone dress. 
• Helping to give someone their medication. 
• Managing the family budget. 
• Collecting prescriptions and managing medication. 
• Helping someone communicate. 
• Looking after brothers and sisters. 
• Providing emotional support.

• You are a ‘Home’ student (EU and International students are not eligible).
• You are enrolled on an Undergraduate or Postgraduate Course.
• You are Full Time or Part Time (*Part Time will be paid on a pro rata basis).
• You are an unpaid carer (see above for definition) for a family member or friend who, due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction, cannot cope without your support. Please note that these duties would be in addition to the usual caring responsibilities that a parent would have for a dependent child, unless the dependent child has a serious illness, mental health or disability.

To access the support package and/or the passport, you will need to provide one of these sources of evidence to prove your carers status: 

• A supporting letter on headed paper from an appropriate professional, for example, your GP, other medical professional or manager of a Carers' Centre confirming your carers status.  Your supportive letter will need to include; Your name, who you care for, and a brief outline of your caring responsibilities.
• A document evidencing that you are, or have been, in receipt of Carer’s Allowance.
• A supporting letter from a local voluntary sector young carers project on headed paper or via email from the organisation concerned.
• A supporting letter from your school or college explaining and confirming your status as a carer for someone with long-term ill-health, mental health problems or a disability on headed paper or via email from the organisation concerned.

*Your supportive evidence needs to be dated within the last 12 months.

*We will not be able to accept any letters or documentation regarding the person you care for, unless it names you as their carer.

*You will only be required to provide evidence once if you continue to access the carers support for the duration of your studies.  If your caring responsibilities do change during your studies, you will be expected to notify Welfare@CampusLife of these changes.

Financial Evidence

• In addition, to proving carers status you will need to provide your award letter from your relevant funding body, for example, Student Finance England/Wales or the NHS for Undergraduate students.
• Post graduate students are expected to show that they have made adequate financial provision for tuition fees and living costs prior to commencing their course. Please provide documentary evidence of all funding sources including Bursary Notification, Scholarship Award Notification, Professional Career Development Loan, Tuition Fee Bursary and any other relevant financial evidence, such as savings and earned income.

*Financial evidence will only be required for accessing the carers bursary.

Students who wish to access Carers Support are welcome to do so by emailing studentcarers.campuslife@swansea.ac.uk>

Students who are unsure of what support to access can have a conversation with the welfare team to identify what would be most appropriate. 

Please get in touch and advise us of your situation. You may not be able to access the package at this time, but we may still be able to offer you practical advice and guidance. In the meantime, you may like to consider disclosing your caring situation to either your GP or Social Services. Most GP practices would welcome your disclosure and most have support and advice available for carers.

You can contact us at welfare.campuslife@swansea.ac.uk 

Even if you do not feel that you would be eligible for financial support from Social Services, you can still request a carers assessment, which may include non-financial support options. Talking to your GP and/or Social Services is advised by the NHS and please be aware that we would still consider applications later in the academic year once you are in a position to provide evidence. Please see the NHS advice for carers for more information and links to further support.

The University recognises that students may find themselves in the position of being a 'temporary carer' at some point during their studies. This could be because a family member has had an accident, been diagnosed with an illness, or is undergoing treatment and the student needs to take on additional caring responsibilities for a short period whilst they recover.

Due to the temporary nature of these caring relationships it is not always appropriate for students to receive the same level of support as those who are long-term carers.

The University can still offer students with short-term caring responsibilities the following support:

• A named contact from Welfare@CampusLife to offer support and guidance through ongoing meetings as appropriate.
• Liaison with the student’s college, with their permission, to facilitate support. This can be in the form of assisting with applications for extenuating circumstances or exam deferrals to ensuring that the College is aware that the student’s attendance may suffer due to short term caring responsibilities.
• Facilitate access to Money@CampusLife for financial advice and support to access the Swansea University Opportunity Award if appropriate.
• Discuss with the student access to additional support which may be of benefit e.g. signposting to Wellbeing Services, Academic Success Programme etc.

It can take up to 10 working days for the Money@Campuslife team to process your application.

You will only be required to provide evidence of your carers status once if you continue to access the package for the duration of your studies.

You will need to complete a brief application form each year in order to receive the Carers Bursary. You will need to include a copy of your student confirmation letter for the relevant academic year and a recent bank statement for the account into which the funds will be paid.