Tens of thousands of university students have been hit with shock demands to repay maintenance loans and childcare grants they were never supposed to receive. In letters sent by the Student Loans Company (SLC) and universities, more than 22,000 learners on weekend courses have been told their funding was awarded in error and must now be returned immediately.

The students, many balancing studies with full-time jobs and family responsibilities, face sudden bills running into thousands of pounds each after officials ruled their programmes did not qualify for living cost support. One letter from the SLC, obtained by the BBC, blamed universities for providing wrong information.

It stated: “Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us you only attended on the weekend.”

It warned that any overpayment has to be repaid in full.

Courses at around 15 institutions, including London Met, Bath Spa, Leeds Trinity, Southampton Solent and Oxford Brookes, are caught up in the scandal. The affected programmes featured weekend in-person teaching, sometimes combined with online sessions during the week.

Students had applied in good faith, taking out means-tested maintenance loans to cover rent, food and other living expenses. Some also received non-repayable childcare grants.

A Universities UK spokesman said the crisis stemmed "from an abrupt government decision". The body revealed that institutions are exploring legal action, voicing “extreme concern” that loan payments had been suddenly blocked.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Students were let down by incompetence or abuse of the system.”

She continued by saying universities must step in immediately to support those facing financial hardship and accused some providers of exploiting a loophole to misuse public funds.

NUS President Amira Campbell added: “The students are devastated. They’re worried, they’re not sleeping, they don’t know where they’re going to find the money.”

Many come from working-class backgrounds and rely on the loans to study while holding down weekday jobs in the hope of better careers.

Student Khawaja Ahsan said: “I feel betrayed and massively let down.” Having completed the first year of a BSc in cyber security at the University of West London, he was awarded £14,335 including childcare grants for his three children.

Working part-time with his wife, the couple have no savings to cover a sudden lump-sum repayment.

An anonymous student added: “The stress of it is making me ill. I don’t have that money.” The student, on a four-year acupuncture degree while earning minimum wage, broke down in tears when facing a £37,000 demand, before a last-minute reprieve was granted to her group after officials accepted the course’s clinical placements made it eligible.

A handful of acupuncture students won that small victory late on Wednesday, but almost all of the 22,000 others remain trapped.

Some universities are now rushing to add weekday modules or switch students to different courses to restore future eligibility, yet this does nothing to wipe out debts already incurred.

Deadlines as early as mid-April have been set in some cases for students to decide whether to continue without funding.

The SLC has advised those struggling to request extra help and suggested universities may offer support, but students explained the reassurance feels hollow.

The row exposes deep confusion over rules for “full-time” study and maintenance loans, which are paid directly to students rather than institutions and normally only repaid after graduation once earnings pass a threshold.

An SLC spokesperson explained: “A small number of providers had wrongly categorised courses as eligible when they amounted to distance learning.”

The Department for Education has ordered a reassessment in line with regulations.

For now, thousands of students who followed the rules as they understood them are left grappling with crippling demands they cannot meet, their degrees and finances hanging in the balance.