EDUCATION Secretary Damian Hinds must “urgently intervene” after student nurses at 20 universities had their loans and grants cut off or reduced due to administrative errors, unions have demanded.

More than 800 people have been told upcoming payments will be reduced or stopped to recover the money after they were paid too much by the Student Loans Company (SLC), the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned.

The RCN and trade unions including Unison and the National Union of Students (NUS) called on Mr Hinds to ensure those affected receive the financial support they had budgeted for next term.