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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be a bit worried about paying for DC university costs!

161 replies

rollonthesummer · 17/02/2017 19:19

How do people manage it-how does it all work?!

In my day-I had siblings at university the same time as me-and we qualified for one grant between us! That paid for the accommodation and my parents gave me £125 a month to live on-I never needed a loan.

What happens now? Do they/you apply for one set of money (£9000 a year?) for the tuition fees and a separate loan for living? Is the amount you can borrow based on what your parents earn? If so-what is the current cut off??

Those with children at university now-what are you paying out on a monthly basis???Blush

OP posts:
Doobydoo · 18/02/2017 19:52

I still cannot understand why 18+ year olds are linked to parents finances re maintenance loan and needing a guarantor. It all sounds like a nightmare.

lljkk · 18/02/2017 19:55

www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator/y

is useful (also it was linked to above). I work out that DD would get the tuition fee loan + £6k/yr. Hard to live on £500/month, rent, utilities, food, transport & text books etc, so I guess we would have to supply almost the same again (£6k/yr) or DD would have to try to earn that much (unlikely).

lljkk · 18/02/2017 19:55

ps: what if parents are divorced... seems odd that parental contribution is treated the same whether they live in one or two different homes.

tenterden · 18/02/2017 20:03

llijkk I am divorced and single.

Student finance only took into account my household income which is low. They didn't ask anything about DDs father or his income.

This benefits us as he does contribute to her expenses (as well as me as much as I can) and her stepmother also gives her money every now and then.

They don't base it on parental income. It is based on household income from the household the student is primarily living in. I guess if you had 50/50 residency you would chose the "household" that had the lowest earner as the primary one.

This is why there is another thread running about the difficulties that arise when a step parents income is taken into consideration when assessing the amount that the student can be loaned, but that step parent doesn't see it as their role to give money to the young adult concerned - especially if the biological parent is non working for instance...........

It's a bloody minefield!

lljkk · 18/02/2017 20:39

thanks, Tenterden.

Doobydoo · 18/02/2017 20:43

It is all ill thought out and stressful.

titchy · 18/02/2017 21:02

Doodbydoo it's been that way for at least 30 years.

VirgilsStaff · 18/02/2017 21:17

She is given £100 per week on top of this. We also pay travel costs, mobile phone and contact lens costs, storage during holidays costs, costs that she'll have associated with language degree like year abroad and holiday travel in country of languages. She runs out of money quite regularly

Then she is wasting it & you're not helping her - 3100 per week PLUS all her essential expenses covered is a massive amount - far more than any student needs, and far far more than most get.

VirgilsStaff · 18/02/2017 21:18

£100 Blush

goingmadinthecountry · 18/02/2017 21:25

It's scary. I pay for a room in Brixton and a flat in Newcastle. Had to fill in about 5 forms for the flat in Newcastle.

I do know of a school friend of dd1's who didn't go to Cambridge because he had no family financial support and wasn't sure he could afford it. took a job locally. Shocking but very far from surprising - they were the first 9k intake. And to think that back in my day we had anti-Thatcher protests. Everyone seems to take it as a given these days. Apart from the £1350 it costs me out of my part time teaching salary, it bloody pisses me off.

goingmadinthecountry · 18/02/2017 21:28

Dd1 (pg) still has some savings from work she uses, but otherwise lives on £8 a day - not much in London for transport, food, books etc. The world has gone mad. I pay £520 a month for the smallest room in a house ever, plus £250 for food and travel etc.

kittykittykitty5 · 18/02/2017 21:43

I currently have two at uni, this will change to three from September 2017. I currently contribute £200 per month and pay for mobile phone bills which are £25 per month.

I am hoping to put this upto £250 this September.

EnormousTiger · 19/02/2017 10:05

..although Cambridge year 1 rent costs are about half of some of the other universities by the way like Bristol and Durham so don't assume Oxbridge is more expensive. Often it is vice versa.

On the tenterden point an additional point in English law is the non resident parent I believe can be sued by the student child for some support (something you cannot force from a parent you live with!) English law is so complex.

Although my divorce settlemetn (I paid my husband a lot) says I pay the school and university costs whomsoever the children live with (this was before fees were £9k a year and one of my sons jokes that if I don't pay in September he will use that document although as I have rightly pointed out it is not a contract between the child and me so he has no enforceable right under it and I am going to pay anyway).

Doobydoo · 19/02/2017 10:31

Just thought. If on lowish income and child receiving nearly max of maintenance loan how could i be a guarantor for accommodation?Confused

ssd · 19/02/2017 11:26

do most kids in England live away from home when they go to uni then?

MostIneptThatEverStepped · 19/02/2017 11:34

Please don't worry...I have three kids, two at uni already and the third to go soon. Because I'm divorced and on a low income they qualify for the highest maintenance loans/grants and bursaries. I pay for their phones, support them when they're at home obviously, top them up with a tenner here and there and send them off with bags of food after vacation etc.
It's manageable. One has a job and the other doesn't, they have learned to budget and are doing okay.

Doobydoo · 19/02/2017 11:44

Thanks Most....still not sure how the guarantor thing could work for us thoughConfused

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou · 19/02/2017 11:48

do most kids in England live away from home when they go to uni then?

They do seem to. My daughter applied for five unis, only one was close enough to commute to (still would cost £1000 per year in train fairs and the loan you can get is reduced if you live at home), it didn't offer the exact course she wanted so she went to the next nearest. It is a two hour drive away (no student cars allowed on campus and she doesn't drive anyway), return train ticket is £25ish and journey takes between 2 and 3 hours depending on connections.

I can't think of any of my friends children who went to uni close enough to live at home.

EnormousTiger · 19/02/2017 12:07

My son lived at home for his last 2 years and drove there (an hour).

You usualy get university accommodation in year 1. In year 2 I was never asked to guarantee my children's rent but if a landlord insisted probably a group of friends might try to find one of the parents prepared to do so.

Doobydoo · 19/02/2017 12:17

Thank you.....really useful threadSmile

MostIneptThatEverStepped · 19/02/2017 12:21

Dooby I've signed guarantor forms for both of mine with problems...can't remember if they even asked my income.

MostIneptThatEverStepped · 19/02/2017 12:44

With no problems that should say 😂

Doobydoo · 19/02/2017 12:56

Grin.......will hopefully get it all sorted. Cannot imagine having 2+ at uni though!

ExConstance · 19/02/2017 13:05

DS 2 gets tuition loan and maintenance loan. The maintenance loan nearly covers his rent in a typical student house share. We give him£400 extra per month for 9 months of the year and pay his train fares home when we don't collect him. In addition we each buy him one pair of shoes a year and socks and pants ( long family tradition!) he doesn't work in term times but does in his holidays, he is ok, but as his course is fashion there are lots of things to buy for his course. He finishes in June - good increase in disposable income then!