What changed
The Home Office laid a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 584) on 3 September 2026. It raises the Student route maintenance requirement so that it matches the maintenance loans available to home students for the 2026/27 academic year, and says the requirement will keep tracking those loans in future years rather than being uprated occasionally. The maximum accommodation offset — the reduction you can claim against the maintenance figure if you have already paid a deposit for UK accommodation — has been updated in line with it. These changes take effect on 30 November 2026.
What it means for students
Until then the published figures still apply: £1,529 a month for courses in London and £1,171 a month elsewhere, for up to nine months. That is £13,761 and £10,539 respectively, on top of tuition.
The timing catches people more often than the amount does. The money has to have been held for 28 days in a row, and the last day of that 28-day period must fall within 31 days of the date you apply — so the balance needs to be sitting there about a month before you submit, not on the morning you do.
The new figures were not published in the explanatory memorandum. Check the amount on GOV.UK on the day you apply rather than working from a number you noted earlier in the year: it is changing, and the date it changes falls inside the application window for January starts.
A separate part of the same statement adds Erasmus+ participants to the existing Government Authorised Exchange route from 8 October 2026. It creates no new route and does not affect Student route applicants.