Uni pocket money?

[Lollypop4]

Did you support your DC with a little bit of cash each month?
DD goes to ini this year.
I was thinking about paying her mobile bill (is only £10pm now) and maybe £30-40pm too , towards food for example(Though this might be used on nights out sometimes!. )
DD will be working during holidays still.
DH thinks the student loan will cover everything and she should just be left to that.

Can she not have a part-time job while she's at uni?

DD gets the minimum loan amount and I top it up to the maximum. I pay it three times a year at the start of each term (like the loan). Except I subtracted the cost of rent during periods that she was not allowed to return to her accommodation due to Covid (and was not charged) and stayed with us instead. It feels fairly generous to me, but we can can afford it so I don't see any reason to be stingy.

Ah, I didn't realise that Welsh students all get the full amount. I think that is probably enough. She can work if she wants extra.

What she gets in terms of loan is means tested, it's on a sliding scale. If your household income is about 65k upwards, she will get the minimum of around £4500 per year which isn't enough to pay rent, so you're expected to top up rent plus pay for food etc (basically you're expected to top it up to the full maintenance loan amount which is about £9.5k)

@titchy

Ah Wales sorry! Lucky you....

Cardiff is very cheap compare to many uni cities, so the grant/loan should cover rent and spending money.

Maybe send a monthly £50 Tesco/Lidl voucher?

That's a good idea for the food vouchers! Thanks

Apologies...I didn't realise Wales was different to England for student finance...

@Comefromaway

In England, given that student loans are based on your parents income then I think its only right for the parent to top it up to the maximum amount and I think it's wrong that it isn't made clear that's what is expected.

The Welsh system of loan and grant seems much fairer.

I keep seeing this, and I don't know where people have been living.

It's always been the case that parents were expected to contribute.

(even though when Loans were originally brought in they were presented as much fairer because it wouldn't depend on parents' income any more... that lasted about two years, iirc, certainly gone by the time grants had)

And yet so many high-earning parents get a child to 18 and suddenly go "what, we're expected to find five thousand a year?"

I was at uni during the time that loans were first introduced. Back then the parental contribution was detailed in your award. Under the current system it's simply assumed, its never stated anywhere.

Now, don't get me wrong some parents (like dh's) never gave their child their parental contribution) but at least it was stated as an expectation.

DH is deluded.

He needs to look at some university websites, most of them show a break-down of average expenses a student can expect.

There are lots of ways students can economise and I suggest you get DC in training before leaving home. Charity shop clothes and furniture, second hand books, pound shop stationery, make their own sandwiches for lunch , learn to cook cheap meals, take a bike to save busfares.

My take would be not to do food vouchers. YOu don't know what supermarket will be nearest/most favoured by students/best stocked/cheapest/preferred, and anyway by this age they should be credited with the sense to shop where and how makes sense to them in any given week. Obviously they won't always get this right, but they should be allowed to learn.

Nothing for my dd. She paid for her food when she was home as she was much better off than me.

@Moonmelodies

Can she not have a part-time job while she's at uni?

If at all possible - and I realise in LOTS of cases it isn't, and this comes with disclaimers about privilege and stuff - I would say it's ideal if they don't get a job for the first semester. Just while they're finding their feet and getting used to it all and making friends and organising themselves to attend stuff, it's one more thing, and it's not what they're there for.

Also employers of students are bloody nightmares for ignoring requests not to be scheduled to work on days and times when you have teaching and putting you on the rota anyway. And if you end up skipping lectures to work in a bar, what's the point?

After first semester, absolutely, and if they can organise their time or need the money, jobs are good. But I'd be a strong advocate for not doing PT work in the first term at least if finances allow

It all depends on how much loan she gets compared to cost of rent, and does that rent also cover gas, electric, water etc. Once all static costs are paid I would then think she needs between £50 - £60 a week more to cover food, books, travel, incidentals etc. Books for uni can be bloody expensive. Getting a part time may not be an option with how Covid has hit many businesses. Your DH needs to get real.

The Welsh system is not ideal, but a lot fairer than the English one. My dd has managed on £50 per week with a level of loan that covers her rent, but nothing else.

My eldest is in Cardiff and has done ok without funding from us. We do send treats regularly but they’ve lived off student finance and eaten well, had nights out etc.

@Smudgeis13

This is very interesting and timely to read. You all seem to be writing about student loans paying, or not, for rent and living expenses. Who pays for the tuition?

That depends which UK country the student comes from and studies in. The average cost of UK university tuition fees, for uk students, is around 9 thousand a year. (Its a lot higher for overseas students)

Scottish students studing at Scottish universities get their tuition free, paid by the scottish govt. They don't pay it back.

Welsh, English and N Irish students tuition fees are paid to the university on their behalf, and become part of the loan they have to repay later when they start earning.

Everybody faces paying for cost of living expenses up front, from a system of loans and grants.

The OP is in Wales, where the student maintenance grant is a combination of loan (repayable) and grant (not repayable) according to parental income.

@TheMerrickBoy

My take would be not to do food vouchers. YOu don't know what supermarket will be nearest/most favoured by students/best stocked/cheapest/preferred, and anyway by this age they should be credited with the sense to shop where and how makes sense to them in any given week. Obviously they won't always get this right, but they should be allowed to learn.

It's Lidl and Tesco metro that students use in Cardiff

Some great advice here , Thank you.
DD will only be working when she comes back home in holidays and if she pops back for a weekend (Its only 2hrs away, she has a job within the family buisness) , she is pretty good with money and is pretty good with cooking from scratch, she also has a small amount of savings from the last year of working which is good.
She is within walking distance of uni too- if she get's her top 2 accomedations.
Luckily ,she has also just been given a very large amount of books from a friend, who graduated last year in the same course DD is taking.

Some supermarkets do a top up type card. In know sainsburys and asda do. Where theybhave one and you have the other so you tip it up like a gift card and the money goes onto theirs to spend.

@Moonmelodies

Can she not have a part-time job while she's at uni?

We made a decision together that we'd rather Dd didn't have a part time job during university.

She has placements which will be hard going at times and will be full time working hours plus work in evenings and weekends. It's unlikely an employer would take those times into account.

It also ties them to staying in their university city at weekends and in holidays, which we didn't want especially out of term time.

She also has a lot of work from university and we want that to be the priority. For example next week she has online lectures/seminars etc from 10am to 6pm every day and will be expected to do work on top of that to be submitted the week after.

So, that's another reason we top DD's spending money up further - as we encouraged Dd not to look for a pt job.