Bursary Application

@MogdenSewage Totally depends on the overall value of the property.

If it’s worth £200k with £60k equity then another £40k would take it to 50% equity. If it’s worth £1m (many modest London properties do cost this much!) then the extra £40k would only make it 34% equity.

Some schools apply a % of equity formula only, others would look at the overall property value and make a common sense judgement. In reality though with a new mortgage it’s unlikely a large lump sum could be paid off in the short term with significant early redemption rates.

You’d be surprised how many applicants don’t feel the need to dip into “rainy day funds” for the purposes of school fees. Of course you are allowed some savings under bursary applications, but £40k is seen as excessive.

Higher equity in a property meaning lower mortgage repayments and higher "disposable" income, or the potential to release some of that equity by remortgaging. We had much higher equity in our property when we were filling out bursary forms, but no capacity to remortgage and our house was not overgenerous for our family. We were told that one potential school had an upper limit on actual property values that would have ruled us out, but the assessor who mentioned that also said that his company had tried to persuade them they needed to lift that given typical property values in the general area.

Our savings were certainly taken into account, and when the youngest started senior school we estimated that we could run out a term or two before he finished. Happily it worked out a little better than that and we hadn't quite run them down completely at the end.

Be frank when discussing your situation with the bursar, but also be prepared to have to justify what your money is being spent on / kept available for, and for them to expect you to scale back depending on their judgement of the situation.

If the 40k also went towards the house equity, what would be the difference between both cases?

@JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything , Hampton school has established a charity called FitzwygramFoundation to fund free places, it's funded by donations, it's not funded by the fees income from parents, I expect this is what she meant.

Then maybe she lied to me. I don't know

This isn't true at all. And not all schools use an independent company to assess bursary applications. Many do it themselves.

Many years ago, there was a thing called the Assisted Places Scheme which did indeed provide government funds for children who needed financial support to access independent schools. It has not been in operation for about a quarter of a century.

I used to audit bursary applications. You would be expected to use the £40k towards fees I’m afraid. The equity in your house is fine though.

So many people quote illness and dying and sick parents as a reason to not be able to spend their own money on fees and things. Not saying yours isn't true but there are SO many saying it that it's a bit like 'the dog ate my homework.'

Or indeed military- but that is only for boarding schools.

There is the odd charity that pay towards bursaries but definitely not the government.

A rainy-day fund of £40k does seem quite high. I am sure that lots of parents paying full fees wouldn’t have those savings. You could probably cover the needs you have mentioned from holding £30k or £20k.

However, I think the way to word it is that you would potentially be able to release some of that £40k at a later date if not needed for your MIL - e.g. to contribute to fees at sixth form stage. Logically, the likelihood of needing to spend the full amount decreases with every year that passes.

Ah, that’s interesting, thanks for replying. I expect she wss thinking of the government funding that’s available for SEN children / children of the military etc, I know they spend quite a bit on boarding schools, but I guess we’ll never be sure what she meant.

@swiftimania

Around two years ago I was on the quest of getting 11+ books. One of the mum's who I was talking to about the books happened to reveal to me that she is in the team that visits homes before the bursary is awarded. We spoke in reference to Hampton Boys School. She worked then in the independent investigation team. To my surprise, she told me that not all of the funds for bursary are coming directly from school. Apparently, there are other sources. I vaguely remember that she mentioned either local authority? or government support. I cannot say 100 percent but I remember vividly that conversation as I was surprise to learn that non private funds would also be contributed towards bursaries

OP different schools have very different policies on who gets a bursary so you aren’t going to get much helpful insight here. (You may get some random
haters turning up on the thread now that Starmer has turned education into a political football, though.)

To answer your question, my feeling is the bursar will not expect you to remortgage your home but your savings will definitely be taken into account, and, if you are financially able to support your MIL, again the bursar will take that into account. They are looking to give discounts to people who are prioritising education but can’t afford the total fees, not people who could pay but are prioritising someone else. I’m not criticising you doing that (it’s great!) just explaining the bursar’s thinking. You’re much better off just filling in the form and waiting to see how it goes, Mumsnet can only give hassle and misinformation on this issue.

And as others have said do consider that fees may go up much more than usual if Labiur gets in, depending whether the school chooses to pass on the total VAG cost or fund it in some other way eg more students.

I’m very curious to hear more about what you mean, @JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything ? In our area, bursary places for independent schools are funded by fees paid by overseas applicants, and by charitable foundations that have existed for centuries. They aren’t raised by current UK parents and certainly not by the UK government. There are some individual cases where the government pays for boarding school fees for the children of military/diplomatic staff, or for SEN students who can’t cope in state schools, but those aren’t normal bursaries those are government funded fees.

Perhaps the school local to you is different to those near me?

There’s always lots of misinformation on these threads though, many don’t believe people earning 80k for example would qualify for a bursary.

If you have 30% equity in a house purchased only three months ago, surely the school will expect that you should have put less money into the house and retained some for school fees?

Equity in your house isn’t going to stop you getting a bursary, they won’t expect you to have 100% mortgages.
However the 40k may be too much in savings.

I worked in the Bursary office of a private school from the early 2000s until I retired a couple of years ago and I've never heard of this. It certainly wasn't something that our school was signed up to - and I knew of no others that were.

If you have 30% equity in a house purchased only three months ago, surely the school will expect that you should have put less money into the house and retained some for school fees? Also keeping aside £40k (!) to fund possible medical treatment and trips to your overseas mother, while very worthy, is unlikely to land well with the bursar either. Everyone could come up with equally valid reasons why they need to retain a nice pot of money just in case....

You shouldn't get a bursary.

That stopped in 1998....

@JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything

I didn't know that was the case. Our children's school suggests bursary funds are provided by legacies from alumni.

Just be honest. Frankly having savings 'just in case' is non starter - anyone could say the same.

@Biscuitsneeded ·

Are you aware of the fact that part of the bursary fund in private schools comes partially from the government? That is why the team that visits houses before to see if bursary would be suitable , is an independent body and not related to school

Just answer honestly with what you've put in your OP. The bursary application process usually includes an interview where issues like this can be discussed in more depth, so there should be an opportunity for you and the school to explore expectations further.

Ime schools vary considerably on what bursary they are prepared to offer on the basis of the same set of financial circumstances. You can be offered a bursary if you have equity in your property or some savings, but £40K is quite a large sum to ringfence for a rainy day. Generally you do have to show that you are prepared to make sacrifices or compromises to contribute as much as possible to the fees.

And as Biscuitsneeded said, think carefully about whether this is a road you want to start down at all, given the uncertainty over VAT.