The Student Award Agency for Scotland (SAAS) has announced that it will be extending the opening hours of its helpline service, due to the large number of people who have yet to receive their bursaries.
Figures released earlier this week show that as many as 6,000 students are yet to receive their loan payments despite term starting weeks ago, which could leave many short in terms of buying food and paying rent.
As such, the SAAS will be providing a weekday helpline service from 08:00 GMT as well as special weekend opening times, with staff from other teams having been drafted in to work with those at the contact centre.
The organisation is committed to clearing all current outstanding applications by next week, with 2,292 cases having been dealt with since Tuesday (October 30th 2012).
Education secretary Michael Russell said: “We will continue to work with the agency to ensure progress is sustained and the applications that continue to be received are dealt with as quickly as possible.”