How much money do you send DC at uni?

[Scribbydigs]

How much money do you send your kids at uni? If you send them any at all?

DD goes to uni later this year (UCL). She's currently doing a year out working to save, but we're all a bit worried about finances. She plans to get a part time job when she gets there too.

Poor kids get the full loan - it should be easy to live on this. No of my daughters friends on full loan have jobs. It’s the middle income Kids that get hit hard.

middle income here we get the minimum for two top up rent and bills and £70 a week they both have jobs but that is for their extras and they both have summer jobs. Also both run cars.

we have saved since they where born so can cover this.

Don't contribute regular cash as don't always have it - but help when possible with course books, supermarket gift cards, food shopping, contribute to bigger bills (DD lives in a private rented flat), bought quite a few essentials as Christmas gifts (jeans, toiletries).
DD expects nothing, and is grateful!

We give our Dc £1100 a month
They don’t have loans

It all depends where they study, though. Oxford accommodation is v. expensive and as well as having compulsory evening meal charges added on, undergraduates are not allowed to have jobs in term-time. I will need to find a second job to help my sons, as I imagine many others will do also.

Top it up to full loan as a minimum. We also paid all train fares home, mobile contract, paid for all books, subscriptions etc. And had the odd food shop delivered.

We top up to maximum loan which is £350 per month (Sept-June) and his DGM gives £100 per month. We collect and return him at the end of each term (love the city he is in so make an overnight trip of it). Also pay mobile phone bill. He did have a part time job in his first year ... this is his final year and he isn't working ... but did do his third year 'in industry' working full time so has money saved from that. He seems to live very comfortably... managed to fund himself to go on the Uni ski trip which isn't exactly cheap!

I was also born in the 70’s, went to uni in the early 90’s. Full grants were not available to modest income families like mine. It was certainly not a level playing field and still meant that money had to be found. This has still not changed.

Mine get about just under 7K a year, but not the full loan. They both work part time. I pay mobile phone and send them £50 a week in term time and help out with lifts whenever I can.
They live at home rent free in the holidays.

We pay for her food. She keeps her receipts and we reimburse her, it’s usually about £25 a week and I give her a bit extra sometimes. She has a part time job, and her accommodation is being paid for out of her savings of some inheritance as she is only 30 mins from home and was intending to stay at home and commute. She’s first year, next year she’s going to live at home again, and intends to save up for her 3rd year to stay away again. We don’t really give her any spending money as such (for “pocket money”) but if she needed anything significant we would buy it for her (shoes/clothing/materials etc)

This. The “poor kids” are fine since they get full loan. It’s the kids in the middle whose parents don’t top them up to full loan who struggle.

This is why I am so so anxious about DSs plans for uni. He won't be entitled to the full loan but we don't have any spare money to top him up and I don't know what he will do ☹️

You need to make it clear to him now that he will have to have a year or two out working before he goes and ensure that he targets a cheaper university for living costs. Avoid London, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Exeter and the other notoriously expensive universities The student finance letters are now very clear that parents are expected to top up to the equivalent of the full loan.

It is definitely not the poor kids who struggle, get jobs and don't get firsts. It is the middle income whose parents are expected to make up the difference in the minimum to maximum maintenance loan, but often struggle to do this, that l are the ones disadvantaged. Also there are many income based, bursaries that only the children of those on lower income can receive. I do make up the difference for my daughter but it isn't easy. They do not take into account your outgoings and how many children you have.

The trouble is middle income families don’t realise that their child won’t be able to access the full student loan and so they haven’t spent years saving for college the way US families do. It can come as a real shock.

Low income families are fine (although of course then have higher student loans).

2 DC at Uni. We cover costs of their phones (DH negotiated a family deal) & Spotify (family membership).

DD is at Uni at UCL, lives near St. Pancras in flat with 3 others. She has max loan + We send her £52/week which covers food & a bit of life plus membership of leisure centre (I need to encourage her to be fit). We usually have to send a bit extra (maybe will be £1000) to help cover her accommodation costs by end of the year, what maintenance loan doesn't quite stretch to. She'll stay in London this summer to work there. Termtime, she works flexi-online-part time for fun money.

DS is at Uni in Midlands, in halls. He is taking no loan this year but will start loan next year which may cover all his rent+utilities. He was covering his own food costs but ran out & not yet go a job. He is a great worker, the hurdle to find a job intimidates him (!) Work in progress. Once he's working again he won't need a weekly top up. Until then, I'll be sending him £25/week to basically cover food until end of term.

Work during Uni years kept me sane.

2 DCs, 2 different unis
both get minimum loan
1 get 450 a month for 10 months
1 gets 650 a month for 10 months

The difference in their accommodation costs is huge.

Minimum loan for DC - we paid for

accommodation
mobile phone
a big shop at the beginning of term

Students I knew in 90s "on full grants" all ran overdrafts.
Do some students still have big overdrafts?
Mine never talk about that possibility. Don't think they even know what an overdraft is.

Dd gets maximum loan and claims PIP, she uses £50 of her PIP a week as she struggles to cook due to dyspraxia, so the £50 is used for food from student union and a take away once a week. Ido pay for her mobile phone. Luckily she doesn’t drink so other than food she doesn’t spend a fortune.

ds commutes, we feed and water him (when he is in which isn't often) and give him £120/month allowance. He also works PT about 20hrs a week. He hasn't taken out any maintenance loan.

Must be doing ok as he has booked a holiday abroad in the summer with friends. Hope he has done his sums and can afford it! 🤦‍♀️

Dd gets full loans etc and a bursary which works out about £320 a term (we are a low income family, 2 disabled people etc). We give her £10 a week, pay for her phone and her contact lenses, and pay for her travel home (about £30 ish return train fare every holiday). She’s in her second year now and that’s worked out well. She hasn’t needed to get a job (although we think she should … that’s a whole different story)!

She’s friends with students who are from much, much richer backgrounds than us (one of their families has their own helipad for gods sake 😳😆) and it seems a lot of these are the ones who struggle because they don’t get much financial help via loans and their families are quite tight with how much help they give.

We pay accommodation about £5,000 a year. £200 a month for food.
She works when home - roughly 25 hours a week over 5 months - makes about £5,000 when home.

We pay/paid for catered halls or accommodation and food. And, now others have mentioned it, mobile phones (just data and calls). Everything else comes out of minimum loan. Both are/were at universities that said that you couldn't work in term time plus DD has field trips and projects in the holidays so a job is out.

DS gets the minimum loan which just covers his accommodation, and we give him £500 a term for spending. We also pay his phone contact and insurance on his car for when he's home. We have occasionally taken a bag of treat food up to him that I know he can't afford normally.

He works in the holidays and is fortunate to have some financial support from DM as well. He's got no travel costs to get to lectures. This Christmas he received several supermarket gift vouchers and practical gifts that will save him money.

It's been interesting as DS has always had plenty of money, he's worked regularly and isn't a huge spender. However now he's having to budget rigidly and seems to be relishing the challenge. What will happen next year when he moves to a private rental is anyone's guess though 🤨

I send £600 a term as they are both in very expensive cities on full loan. They both get a bit of extra money from their unis too. They have some casual work too but not a regular job.