Financial & Welfare Support

Choose Cadbury Sixth Form College when you leave school and get all the benefits of our MEGA DEAL.*

FREE BUS TRAVEL for EVERY full-time 16-18 year-old student.**

We will provide you with a Term Plus Travel Card that allows travel on West Midlands buses. You can travel at any time, including evenings and weekends. This will be renewable termly if you keep up a good record of progress, behaviour and attendance.

Bus routes calling here include:
City Centre: 35, 45, 47
Kings Heath & Moseley: 18,35
Selly Oak & Bournville: 48
Northfield, Longbridge, Bartley Green: 18, 45, 47, 49
Solihull: 49

* Subject to continuing government funding.
** Subject to attendance, performance and continuing government funding.

If you are aged under 19 on the first day of your course, full time courses are free.

If you are aged under 19 on the first day of your course, full time courses are free.

We can provide financial support towards College trips and activities, equipment, uniform and books (dependent on course requirements) for young people who were in receipt of free meals at school, and young people where household income falls below £36,000 (most other Colleges fix this at around £20,000).

We offer free meals to students who are from low income households. Eligible students will receive credit on their ID cards to spend at the catering facilities in college at the daily meal rate of £3 per day that they are timetabled to be in college, or £15 per week.

To apply for free meals students must be:

· Aged between 16 and 18 years on 31 August, or aged over 19 and continuing on the same study programme (19+ continuers) they started before they turned 19

· Have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Students are eligible for a free meal where they meet the criteria and satisfy the residency criteria set out in the EFA ‘Funding regulation’ guidance for the academic year.

Eligibility: Students being in receipt of, or having parents who are in receipt of, one or more of the following benefits:

· Income Support

· income-based Jobseekers Allowance

· income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

· support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

· the guarantee element of State Pension Credit

· Child Tax Credit (provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190, as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC))

· Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after someone stops qualifying for Working Tax Credit

· Universal Credit with net earnings not exceeding the equivalent of £7,400 pa

The Learner Support Fund helps those students who would otherwise be unable to participate in Further Education. Priority groups are learners who are economically or socially disadvantaged.

Young people aged 16 to 18 on 31st August may be entitled to a £1,200 bursary (dependent on circumstances and performance) if they are:

· In care • Leaving care • In receipt of Income Support or Universal Credit in their own right

· Receiving Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payments in their own right as well as Employment and Support Allowance or Universal Credit in their own right.

· Living independently.

Students need to complete the combined 16 to 18 Free Meals and Discretionary Learner Support Fund (DLSF) application form. The form can be found in the Student Portal and can be completed via your student email address. Please ensure you complete all sections of the form and attach the required supporting documents.

We would encourage all students to apply early if they think they will qualify for Free Meals or the Learner Support Fund. For all enquiries contact the Welfare Department via email [email protected]