1st year university - how much do your DC have to live on?

£17 a week...!

I didn't think it was a good idea to pay fees, but take the loan. Just in case they don't end up earning over the threshold so wouldn't end up paying off the loan.

Nothing, but dd lives at home, she works 16 hours a week and funds all other costs herself. She didn't take any loans as we saved money for fees since she was born, we settle them

She is doing a Level 6 professional diploma & has a government DaDA award. This covers most of the fees but we do have to make a contribution. It’s on a sliding scale according to parental income.

There is a maintenance element available but only for family incomes of less than £30,000.

If she isn't entitled to a loan, do you pay the course fees too?

Dd isn’t entitled to a student loan.

We pay her accommodation of £130 per week including breakfast and evening meal & we give her £30 per week. She also earns £15 per week from a part time job. We also pay £10 per month phone contract.

Loan doesn't cover rent (which is incl of bills) so loan used for that and I pay the difference.
I then send £35 pw from mid Sept until end of May for everything else.
Both my dc have worked during holidays, and dd (just starting 2nd yr now) has got herself a job at University now too, as she is saving up to go abroad for the Summer. She runs her own car that she bought from what she saved during 6th form, after paying for her driving lessons / pays her own insurance.

The big problem is cost of halls which vary from around £4,000 to double that in London and £10,000 plus isn’t unheard of. The minimum loan barely touches that even with the bit extra they give for London. I think that children from ordinary backgrounds who cannot live at home are now struggling to afford London unless they get a job. However some courses are very full on so holiday working is the only option.

I cannot see how a student can realistically survive on £35 a week. Never in London because travel would suck up a portion of this. It would mean no socialising at all and not much of a university life as most would like to live it. More like a university hermit which isn’t healthy. Students need friends and some nights out. Just sitting in your room with pot noodles isn’t living! A pint of real ale in London will be £5 so I think there has to be a realistic approach to working out costs from the bottom up. What do they need? Who’s paying for the phone, clothes, laundry, house bills and deposit for second year onwards, journeys home, travel to university if needed, books, laptop, the odd night out etc. £35 a week is clearly not going to buy much except food!

You'll have to excuse the typos as I can't preview on my teeny iPhone 5! Soz

Well, in a tight wad!

DS's minimal loan was swallowed up by rent (I think his loan was £4100, Halls are £6000 inc a bus pass so he was behind the eight ball from day one!).

I send DS £150 pcm to live off. He has no major expenses as his course is very much online, he has a Railcard with Santander, no gum interest, more a 'real ale at home' guy, no fashion interest. And we pay his phone bill.

I said to DS that I won't see him struggle, but he's not to make a profit from us. He has agreed to share his expenditure with us at Xmas, when I also expect him to work! I won't be giving him that cash (pro rata) while he's home, as instead of him paying his expenses, I am, complete with waitress service 😂

same as some others, we pay ds accommodation costs ( approx £5k) and he lives off his minimum maintenance loan plus his savings from hs summer job.

DS is very tight and spends very little and has managed to save a bit as well.

Hall fees are £7,149 for a shared room. She will be living on £200 a month from us, but the halls are fully catered so no food bills.

We are paying DD's accom (£5.8K), phone bill and major book purchases. Sent her off with decent stash of bog roll, washing powder etc. No maintenance loan; she is living off £75 pw term time plus whatever she can earn in the hols.

Mine are on minimum loan. It didn't cover either of their first years' rent (one was about £6250, the other about £5700). Loan was a bit under £4000, and is now slightly over. We pay the rent, they live off the loan.

Similar here drummer whereabouts in London is he?
Luckily dd is a fussy eater so it should be doable

Ds1 gets the full maintenance loan(London), he didn't get his first choice cheapest halls so has £35 a week over 52 weeks to live on. We made sure he has a good month worth of store cupboard ingredients and the first weeks food before we left plus cleaning products, washing powder, toiletries etc to get him started.
He will be learning how to live on a very tight budget.

Accommodation in self catering hall, ensuite is 5.6k.
We give him £500 per month at the moment, but ds is keeping a record of expenditure so this may go up or down. I paid for his food shopping when he started -£80 -but he wants an annual gym membership and that's over £250 which will eat into this month's cash.
He is not entitled to a loan as only just returned to the UK.

It depends as your not always guaranteed your accommodation. So even if you get maximum loan there’s a chance accommodation could take up the whole loan (more so London)

The full maintenance loan should cover it, there is an extra amount for London, but some uni halls exceed even this and the loan is means-tested.

DS gets minimum maintenance loan. As such we pay for accommodation.
Agreed budget with DS to be approx £800 for this term (he has weekly, monthly and one-off payments in that). As such he has to pay us £500 from maintenance loan towards accommodation.
If there is anything that comes up that is not budgeted for then we will discuss/transfer money.
The budget includes gym (which he's buying now for year, so will be quids in next 2 terms!), tv license but not phone bill which I'll continue to pay until contract finishes in December.
I expect him to get a job to fund social life, and I will cover train trips home (so long as they're infrequent!)

So does the maintenance loan usually cover hall fees if parents can't afford to pay it?

Accommodation: £4000 (paid by us)

Living expenses: £4700 maintenance loan plus whatever he earns from his holiday job.

I pay her phone bill £15 per month
She has to top up her oyster and she’s paid for a gym membership outright from her wages for this month

Dd is in London South east
Halls are £8,709.54 per year and this isn’t the most expensive room.
She’s ensuite

Loan is max for London so £11,354 she hasn’t about £144 a month to live on after rent goes out. She’ll get a job hopefully and I will send £50 per month

ds gets £65 a week to live on over 42 weeks. In the holidays he might end up using less if he comes back to home to eat! He went up with about £200 saved in addition to this (mostly presents from doting relatives after his exams, he didn't save it from any job )

If he needs books, but apparently he won't really as there is an extensive library/digital resource, I think we will probably pay for them in addition, hence the medium amount per week.

Accommodation in hall is paid for already. Also nearer the 7,000 mark. Very expensive, so we reduced his allowance accordingly.