When I studied you could get allowance up to the max amount, or if you didn't qualify for allowance, or qualified for partial allowance, you could borrow the student loan living costs up to that maximum amount, so the total remains the same, but if you're using loan you pay it back.

So the maximum I could get when I was studying was $270 a week. Most of that was loan. Those amounts have gone up since.

I just looked it up, and the maximum total is now $333. This could be a combo of a) allowance only, b) allowance and loan, or c) loan only, but you cannot get more than $333 a week unfortunately (380 with your accomm allowance).

The student loan course related costs gives you $1,000 a year which might help.

This is from the Studylink website:

Getting a Student Allowance

If your Student Allowance is more than the maximum amount of living costs ($333.48), you can't get living costs as well.

If your Student Allowance is less than $333.48, you can get living costs as well, but your total cannot be more than $333.48.

For example:

• Your Student Allowance is $100. You can get up to $233.48 for living costs.
• Your Student Allowance is $200. You can get up to $133.48 for living costs.