Uni- how much?

[LotsOfBalloons]

So my eldest is in yr 9 and I have 2 kids.

Fibancially we have stretched ourselves to manage music lessons, swimming etc.

Both are at a grammar school and are expecting to do uni.

I'm starting to get The Fear. Our income isn't high for a number of reasons and we haven't got capacity to save beyond 100 a month we save for car issues/etc. We don't do expensive holidays, have old cars etc.

A threads I was on suggested needing 30k for uni. That's so way beyond us.

I was wondering if people could let me know what they do need (ie don't come and tell me you've bought your child a house etc as not relevant!)

I went before fees were introduced. I know they have loans now (I'm already anxious about them leaving in debt but I know its how it works now) but do the loans cover enough?

My child is keen to work too but there aren't Saturday jobs like there used to be and noo e around here employs under 16s anyway. Having said that, they're autistic and may not have capacity for work and uni at the same time.

Your post wasn’t too clear, unfortunately the parents of many DC who only get minimum loan can’t afford all the “bells and whistles”.

If you can afford to save a bit to help out then it can’t hurt, but it sounds like your DC will be able to get through fine on their loans if they budget carefully

If you/they get the full maintenance loan, that will give them £9k+ a year
to live on. Providing they eat and drink sensibly and go to a uni with reasonable housing costs and don’t go for an en suite, they’ll probably be ok.

Tuition fees are paid for by a separate loan-you never really ‘see’ that, it just gets paid directly.

We are in a difficult position as although we just earn enough to only get the basic loan, we have two at university, so are expected to top up to the maximum loan for both of them.

Our kids have the tuition loan and the minimum maintenance grant. We pay their rent and incidentals. Rent works out about 6k per year plus maybe 1k for phone, gym, transport passes.

By ‘Grant’ I meant ‘loan’.

@LIZS @Lily999888 well you both will clearly have paid more than 30k for 2 kids if you pay 150 a week..

150 x 52 is 7800
X 3 years is 23400
X 2 kids would be 46800!

We can't pay £150 a week clearly.

I've will have to look at the maintenance grant and then cost of living will have to be a deciding factor rather than degree choice etc... in the south so not going to be cheap anywhere.

If the student gets the full maintenance loan, they should be ok dependent on not choosing expensive accommodation. It might be worthwhile doing a bit of research to get a sense of those costs. Despite my son going to an expensive city, if he had the full maintenance loan he would have survived fine with little from us. He is not a drinker or clubber however which saves a tonne of cash!

Honestly, don't worry! @LotsOfBalloons

I top up to the max loan which is more than enough. However, my child is in a cheap city. If you join the WIWIKAU Facebook page you could ask where to avoid if on a budget. London, Edinburgh, Bristol, bath are traditionally expensive. Oxford/Cambridge often very manageable as can stay in reasonable uni owned accommodation for all 3 years. Look at the accommodation costs on university websites and search for private hall providers to see what the ballpark is. Look out for cost per week x number of weeks (can be anything from 30-52 weeks for a contract). You can check out rentals on rightmove (tick the student property box) and local agents (there will be specialist agents in every town) to gauge second and third year accommodation) Think about transport costs too. Many campus style universities don’t have lots of walking distance accommodation fore years 2/3.
Encourage a job at a chain supermarket or fast food place in 6th form and they may be able to transfer it to their university town (and back for holidays).

OP I think the answer is no the maintenance loan won’t be enough to cover rent and living expenses. It’s really worth going on the calculator as if if your DC was going to uni this year and finding out how much loan you would get. Then for example look at uni accommodation in a nod price area and seeing how much it costs. That will give you a starting point.
Children from high earning families still get a maintenance loan but the parents are expected to cover more of the university costs.

We live in the south. My kids are NOT at uni in the south. Choose your campus and location carefully! Looks at prices of the halls and what is included-there is huge variation.

We fall into the higher income bracket (just) but with other kids to pay for, we certainly can’t afford any bells or whistles.

@Shinyandnew1 it is not 52 weeks though. Uni terms are approx 12 weeks long so lets are around 38 weeks until they move into rented accommodation, by which time they can get vacation work to help pay if needs be.

And there may be scholarships or bursaries available at some unis.

I don’t think I mentioned 52 weeks, did I?

No sorry @LotsOfBalloons was calculating on that basis.

We top up to max loan and it was fine for first-year, in a mid-price city in the south. Second year might be tighter, we'll see. DD is pretty frugal, though.

@LotsOfBalloons I think you're a bit confused.

You refer to the rich parents paying full costs in the 80s and 90s - mine had to for me and were both teachers so hardly rich.

And the bells and whistles comment - the point is there are lots of households on incomes where university top ups are a struggle. People sometimes save for years to prepare, they don't just have money lying around!

Ds lived off his minimum maintenance loan - that was food, going out, everything. He was a great budgeter. We paid rent which started at £6 for halls and this last year has been 9k. Depending on the city the rents can be extortionate. Lots of students work as well, ds did the last year. Lots of kids take a year or two out and work and save before going to uni.

No I did and it was nestled inappropriate. Quote in reply.

LIZ and another poster were aghast at 15k per a child through uni but also said they paid 150£ a week which I pointed out was a lot more than 15k a child. Even on a 38 week term it's more than 15k (and 2nd/3rd yr often you pay all year round don't you?)

Thanks @standoutfromthe and @Zwicky for reassurance - although the posts directly underneath suggest full loans won't be enough 🙈.

Unfortunately supermarket/fast food type jobs will be out due to autism but they're keen to work it just might be hard finding the right thing.

Dds rent next year is 800 a month. We'd love to pay it and let her live on the loan, but we can't afford it.

I would add that both our kids have been at uni with others that are expected to live on their maintenance loan after paying rent. And they are as poor as church mice. It’s not sustainable unless they have jobs. And that takes time away from studying and fun.

@LotsOfBalloons Ds also has ASD and is just going to uni next September, at 21. He wasn’t ready to do it at 18 and several of his friends who also have ASD have really struggled. (That’s not to say all students who have ASD will, but his cohort was really messed about by the pandemic, which won’t have helped.) In ds’ case he needed to mature a bit and develop more independence before he was ready. In the meantime he’s done a supported internships (unpaid) and had a job for a while, which helped him to develop the independence and skills he needs.

He’s chosen a uni that is local/commutable, so that he can stay at home. This is partly due to cost, but mainly because he knows he is going to need a lot of support and there’s no way he could cope in shared accommodation with other students.

So, he’s applied for tuition, plus the basic maintenance loan. He also been accepted for DSA to help with additional costs relating to his SEN and MH issues that other students wouldn’t have.

He has is working this summer to raise some extra cash and we will help out as and when he needs it, but obviously our food/housing etc costs for him will remain the same and he won’t have that outlay. There’s no way we could afford to top up his maintenance by 5k plus.

I had a similar panic to you when mine were roughly the same age, but you really can’t tell how things will pan out and for us, him going at 21 and deciding to stay local and live at home (fortunately a local uni has the idea course for what he wants to study too) has worked out perfectly.

@Orbitsound no not confused ! I've said rich parents can pay whatever they want to (so someone high earning could pay extra for really nice accomodation) but also said that won't be relevant to this thread.

We aren't in a position to save, great that some people are! Fab! We aren't.

Hence the thread and asking whether it's possible to manage on the loans and what to do if it isn't enough.

Clearly families that can save or cut back a bit here and there will do that. We've completely stretched to afford the music lesson (as stated in OP) so it's clear that we aren't in that boat. Stopping music lessons etc will save at most 1k a year (great earlier poster will save 7k by child not doing music lessons. Great! We won't be.)

@BriarHare that was my fear 😔.

My poor kids. They can't win whatever way I look at it.

DS gets the full amount. I can afford £50 a month and he survives just fine. He will just have a major debt at the end. His dad provides nothing despite earning £70k plus per year (he was on that when we split)

@CaveCanem thanks for that. Yes it really is super tricky being autistic in the first place without the low income background. I so wish I could support more.

We don't live near a good uni so I don't think staying home will be feeesable but I could see that would be a good solution.

I think they will resent going a year later than friends in order to work but it might be that we need to sow that seed now.

You’ll find a way OP. A second job a couple of nights a week will bring in some extra cash. My child wants to do a medical degree so I’m looking at possibly 6 years! We have said we will downsize our house. Could you do that too with your house?