Thousands more students than expected will be affected by the cut to student grants, according to new figures.

An extra 90,000 students will lose out because of a government miscalculation, the Students Loans Company estimates.

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) admitted in October that it had underestimated the number of students eligible for a full student maintenance grant and lowered the threshold for receipt of funding for a partial grant by £10,000 - having raised it in July.

It said this would mean 40,000 students starting in 2009 would no longer be able to get any form of maintenance allowance.

But new figures suggest that thousands of prospective students, who are still able to get support, will also have their grants slashed as a result of the mistake.

Students starting in 2009 from households with an income of £40,000 a year will have £312 shaved off their grant.

Projected figures indicate that a total of 390,000 students will either lose the possibility of the non-repayable money altogether or have the amount cut.

Those already at university will not have their funding reduced - so students in different years will have varying levels of financial support.

David Willetts, Shadow Universities Secretary, said the latest figures came as “a hammer blow to families up and down the country.”

A spokesman for DIUS said the figures were provisional and insisted the Government was committed to growing student numbers.

Times recommends

• Students face big rise in university fees
• Students to rate lecturers online
• Lord heads team to look at raising tuition fees