The government is coming under pressure from MPs to publish its plans to reform the student loan system.

MPs say the current system is a "dog's breakfast" which is putting off poorer students from applying to university.

The cross-party Public Accounts Committee said the new system should be simple and be targeted at people from poorer families and those with disabilities.

It is a year since the government announced it was reviewing the student finance system.

The results are expected before Christmas. Initially, they had been due in the spring.

Frightening

The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, the Conservative MP Edward Leigh, said: "The dog's breakfast of a system for funding students is a major barrier to increasing participation.

"The vast array of discretionary funds must frighten the life out of most students.

"In particular the system must be made to work better for lower socio-economic groups and the disabled."

In England, students have to pay tuition fees of �1,100, although this is means-tested and more than 40% had the fee waived in 2000-01.

The current system is not working

Mandy Telford, NUS president

There are bursaries and hardship funds available for the less well-off.

However, the committee's report said the main reason why poorer students were not going to university was that they got fewer GCSEs and A-levels.

It said it was crucial to improve the performance of poorer students in schools and colleges if the government was to achieve its target of widening participation in higher education to 50% by 2010.

There has been criticism of the government for the vague way it has set this target, saying that 50% of people should have "some experience of " higher education.

The public accounts committee said: "The department should set out in unambiguous terms the target for widening participation, the courses that count and the basis for measurement."

Accessible

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "We do accept that the financial support available to students in hardship can be complex and difficult to understand and apply for.

"That is why we have carried out a review of this targeted support to make it more straightforward and accessible, and we will be setting out the new system shortly."

The report has been welcomed by the National Union of Students (NUS)

The NUS national president, Mandy Telford, said: "This is yet another piece of independent evidence that shows the current system is not working and backs our call for the introduction grants for students currently priced out of education.

"It is crucial that the government uses the funding review to deliver for students."

The president of Universities UK, Professor Roderick Floud, said: "Today's report on widening participation in higher education reflects much of what Universities UK has been saying to the government.

"It is vital that the government acts if we are to ensure that 50% of young people experience higher education by 2010.

"But it is also vital that the government invests in universities to ensure that these new students receive a first class education once they get to university."