to think that £500 a month is enough for a child at uni

Wow.

I was lucky enough my parents paid my rent (ie room in a shared house).
That was it.

Then my student loan was for everything else. Ie food and bills and textbooks and hobbies and equipment.

I got a part time job, which helped massively with both money but also with getting job offers and placements.
I worked the summers getting placements.

Tbh if you give to much money, there is less incentive to build up work experience. I chose to do placements because I needed the money so badly. But! It meant that later on, I came to be more successful in being picked for jobs because I had experience. I had friends who didn't do placements or work. And they seemed to struggle more.

If you have a part time job, and you earn £50 pw, that's ~ 200 a month. And if you're student loan works out at about 200 a month, you effectively double your money available to you.

If I were you, as a parent, I'd cover their rent. Maybe help out with big purchases like if a laptop breaks. But definitely teach them money skills like building an emergency fund. You could do this where you say you'll give half of what they add in upto x amount. That way you are forming habits and encouraging.

I think it can be a problem just throwing money at young people, because it can create too much security and not build knowledge.
You want to aim to gently transition them from being totally dependent on you to not at all. And teach them skills to manage finances.

:)

I think £500 is more than enough. A student can work in the holidays to save up money. I do understand the point that some courses are more intense. However, when I did my nursing degree I was either in Uni full days 4 or 5 days a week or on placement full time plus lectures at the hospital. We had lots of assignments and exams all through the year as well as mentor set learning and skills learning when on placement. Only 7 weeks holiday and I had children and a house to run and like many others mums worked throughout. So I'm sure a youngster could fit some work in if they want extra money.

My tip on this is unless you are already saving over £20k per person yourselves in an ISA not to save in their names.

DH had child funds but we have stopped contributing to these and focusing on our stocks and shares ISAs. We will only reconsider if we go over our yearly allowance of £20k each. (Not anywhere near at the moment.). We want the money to be spent for university or something worthwhile.

That's way too much, all students should have part time jobs - will be far more useful than their degrees.

I have another DC at uni living at home in London to save money, and she gets £300 pm. Nearly half of that goes for transport as we are not walking distance from uni. She worked last holidays for a trip away, but is doing a much less punishing course. She has had real trouble finding jobs though.

Tbf one DC costing £500pcm when they were at home with fares to sixth form, food, clothing, haircuts etc.

Mine gets £60 a week, plus we pay for phone, gym membership and car insurance on top. She works in the holidays and is just starting a job in her uni town, so her earnings pay for clothes, socialising etc.

Although if he gets the minimum loan just to live on without rent then he's on quite a bit more than £500 a month (term time)

I do get it, honestly. It does bother me that young adults and their parents are increasingly seriously considering not going to uni because it's so expensive now. And I do have a vested interest for my own dc (7 and 13yo) so I'm trying to 'educate' myself about the real costs, which i know are a far cry from a few decades ago. Of course we'll support them with as much as we can afford, and we've been saving a small amount each month since they were born (which I think we now need to increase) which we will gift to them when they turn 18, to give them and bit of a leg up. I think most parents have been trying to save up over the years with a view to doing something similar.

But I simultaneously believe that students should work to contribute to their uni experience. Courses have always required intensive study, but there seems to be a growing, creeping belief that young adults can't possibly be expected to have part time jobs in case it interferes with their studies. Gym memberships are a luxury many working adults can't afford, yet (if this thread is anything to go by) are commonplace among students. Car insurance is expensive for young people, yes, but i would consider having a car at uni a massive luxury.

£500 per month, in addition to having accommodation fees paid, is a lot when op has said they're also expecting their dc to work and contribute. Few parents can afford those kinds of sums, op's dc is very, very fortunate.

DS1 gets the minimum loan and we pay his accommodation so he gets a similar amount to what you are proposing. He supplements his income through tutoring.

The university term is short. There's a month off at Christmas and Easter and they are off from may to September.

That isn't the case for every university. DS finishes at the beginning of July.

It really depends on the course. I got 10 days at Christmas and Easter and 4 weeks in summer.

Yes absolutely I just provided top line info re maintenance loan not full detail which can be found online.

Cheapest option is to live at home whilst studying at local uni. It’s the living out that is £££.

Is this enough? I would think so, yes. At least in most cases.

If it isn’t:

1. What is your DS studying? Is a PT job realistic? It usually is and it is a good life lesson imo.
2. If not: could you afford to give more? The whole discussion is moot if you can’t. He’ll simply have to find a solution in that case.

This isn’t quite right. it’s only the minimum £4.5k loan if household income is over £65k. However, the max loan of £9.5k is not possible for household income over £25k. Figures aren’t quite right, I am going off the top of my head. And my figures are for a student living away from home but not in London.

So any household over £25k is expected to contribute to some degree. You should bring the student up to the level of the maximum loan. And if someone is a single parent and have a live in partner/new spouse that person’s income is taken into account.

Im assuming most parents would just give the money but I suppose they could loan it, or take a small private loan out on the students behalf to be repaid (just as if the student had taken a normal student loan if they’d been from a less well off household). I heard something like this on the Dave Ramsey show. all this is more established in the USA. Sometimes people seem to do 2 years at community college living at home then go away for the final part of their degree. I suppose you could do that here. Our local FE/higher education is affiliated with a university.

@Splety Absolutely sounds like it, wow. I knew it wasn’t the same but I didn’t know to what extent exactly.

I suppose it’ll be all change again before my two grow up. Assuming either want to go to university of course!

This thread would be a lot better if people actually read the OP’s posts (her DS isn’t entitled to a loan) and based their answers on the world in 2024 rather than what they did in 1996 or what they imagine they’ll do for their imaginary teenager in 2040.

The university term is short. There's a month off at Christmas and Easter and they are off from may to September.

Even on an intensive course it should be possible to pick up work in the holidays. If course this gets easier the more work you have done so having a job and saving between completing A levels and starting uni is crucial.

Not only will it earn him money for the expensive early socialising, it will ensure he can easily pick up similar retail, bar etc work in the future.

Massive massive LOL at £16 a day making someone a spoiled rich kid 😂😂😂

is that you, 30p Lee?

YABU calling them a child. Adults go to uni.

Holiday jobs. Uni holidays are long and students won't be earning enough to pay tax, so entirely feasible to earn £5k.

There are plenty of people on here saying they can't afford to give their kids much, let alone £500 per month!

Does no one get a part time job whilst at uni anymore?!

See post above. If you as parents earn more than low wage your DC will only get £4.5k maintenance loan. This is a shortfall on average of around the £5k required for accommodation, food and laundry in most places. If your DC can find a flexible job that allows them to study and provides enough hours in the zero hours contract economy to pay the £5k needed then they have done extremely well.

Things have changed.

Parents need to be aware that kids need about £10k a year to live outside of london. Probably more in most places.

If you are low income this isn t an issue since your child will be eligible for the maximum loan (of about £10k). If you're not low income then you either need to save up in readiness, be able to pay out of your income, they need to live at home or they need to take a gap year or two to be able to afford to survive. They also need to consider which universities they apply to and factor in living costs.

Working whilst at university is great in theory but there are only so many jobs to go around and zero hours plus variable timetables makes things difficult.

This is different to the £30k tuition fees which everyone can get a loan for if UK resident for the right amount of time.

So if your DC is on the maximum loan of £4.5k, how are you expecting them to pay the shortfall for accommodation and food costs? This is on average for accommodation alone around £3k, plus food, laundry etc.

Tuition fees are nothing to do with this. This is the maintenance loan and if you earn more than low wage your DC will only get £4.5k per year, which doesn’t pay for accommodation and food at any uni.

A job would need to earn them likely around £5k per year to cover costs, and that would be tight in some places. Finding a job that has the flexibility to attend studies in the zero hours contract economy - 🤔