To think DD has got this wrong!? Surely she isn't entitled to this much student loan!?!?

[Alliasp2]

DD is going to a London uni and we are on a family income of 20k.

She is apparently entitled to her tuition fee loan (around 9k a year) which I knew. However, she is also apparently entitled to 11k maintenance loan!? each year!!! She says she pays it back when she starts earning 21k... I'm very confused. Surely su can't be entitled to this much? After paying for accommodation, which is en suit, she will seem to still have 4k left each year? That's without even working, surely this has to be wrong?

doesn't she need to eat and pay for transport?

www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator

She's right. Living in London, away from home. Parental income of £20,000, gives a maintenance loan of up to £11,002 per year.

DD is off in Sept, she is getting about 3k (family income 6 figures). This won't cover the accommodation at 5k so we are making up the shortfall + a monthly allowance. The most she would get on a low income bracket is about 8k - but I think London Uni gets an extra amount due to higher cost of living. So it doesn't seem unlikely to me that 11k is applicable on a 20k family income

Of course she needs to eat and pay for transport, but there will be 4k left over each year. It just sounds very extreme when I hear about having to work 3 jobs, etc. I couldn't quite believe it.

It's not without working, it's just that the working is in the future, so in that future she'll need to borrow from another work future to pay for living in the future that is paying for her current present.

The banks and the tories like it that way, so that universities can spend money from forty years in the future, on vice Chancellor bonuses now. It's unsustainable, but everyone benefitting now will be dead when your daughter is working to pay for them.

Prospect and the Economist are both writing about it this month...

Yup that sounds right - just worked through the calculator. 4k a year is £333 a month. So not that much she will probably still need a job and financial help from parents. She doesn't have to take the full amount she is entitled to, but as she will be London it is probably worth it.

Yes that's what my DS has - only just covers his accom though so he needs to work during the hols to save for everything else.

£4K to feed and clothe herself, pay for transport (including visits home) and university supplies (course costs, printer credits, books she'll need regularly enough to make withdrawing them from a library a nusciance), and have a bit of a social life is about £400 a month over 9 months, less if she wants to keep some to ride her over until she gets a summer job or to pay the deposit on next years accommodation if she goes into a private flatshare.

Students aren't meant to have to work three jobs. The idea is that they'll support themselves from a combination of loan and parental contribution. Clearly if you're on 20 grand and have just lost child benefit and any CTC then you won't be able to contribute, and rents in London are huge so the loan has to be large.

The students who are really stretched are the ones whose parents can't or won't pay their presumed contribution for a variety of reasons (even when I went to university back in the dark ages I had a mate who was perennially broke because his dad was a "creative" on a hugely volatile income and his grant was always assessed on dad's last year's tax return).

People often say things like 'work 3 jobs' , but fail to mention that they all add up to not very many hours a week, because it's a couple of hours here and there. Nothing wrong with students working by the way. Many do, and it doesn't have to affect their studies or social lives.

I suggest that you read up on the ins and outs of student finance.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/

Unless your DD ends up working in a high paying job for the 30 years after she graduates, chances are that a lot of what she borrows will be written off. She also won't need to repay anything at any of the time she is out of work, or on low pay under £21k, and if she is earning just above this threshold, the amount she will be paying back will be tiny - a few quid a week.

Oh definitely Winter. When I started uni 10 years ago I got a loan of £4.5k, half of that went on accomodation so I had £2k left for the year. The parental contribution isn't enforced, so the only way I could argue my parents contributed financially was that they didn't make me pay rent when I was home for the summer. The pressure of knowing I had to work too definitely impacted on my studies. Food and clothes haven't gone up too much in price in 10 years.

£7k for accomadation! Dd's with ensuite wetroom costs £4760.

£7k for accomadation! Dd's with ensuite wetroom costs £4760

In London?

It's not that much to finance living in London. Have you done a budget. Taking books, food, travel expenses into account it isn't really a fortune. And students do like to socialise and go on holiday.

7k sounds good. My sister's is just under 11k

£4k a year for everything she's going to need to pay for really isn't that much. Food, transport, clothes, toiletries, books/course equipment, computer stuff, printing costs, stationery, phone credits and some sort of social life all add up ... particularly in London.

I went to university 20 years ago, and the total cost of my set texts alone in my first year was almost £500 (library not an option for those, as we had to annotate them).

Bear in mind that it's not actually intended that students should have to work. They are supposed to be in full-time education. Yes, lots of them do work for all sorts of financial reasons, but the loan is meant to cover them without them having to work.

No not London but London weighting isn't that much.

Often it's the kids from middle income families who struggle most. Their parents income means they qualify for less loan but parents can't or won't top up.

OP your daughter should check out bursaries at her uni: quite often they are available for kids on full loan.

And this is why I get SO angry when people, media etc. start fearmongering that young people won't be able to afford to go to university!

(In my opinion parents should not- and generally are not- expected to contribute. I think a lot of people overestimate how many parents pay for uni- it is definitely not the norm. Before anyone starts with the whole 'ah but what about those whose parents earn a bit more and don't get the massive grants/loans'- yeah, that was me, and I managed fine too, with no parental contributions except for train tickets)

Good luck to her! She'll have a great time

TinklyLittleLaugh my comment wasn't directed at you, sorry, just a slow typer today- I agree that 'middle income' students are sometimes the worst off, my point was that it still doesn't mean they can't afford to go

How many weeks does the 7k accommodation cover - just termtime? Can you afford to put her up for the rest of the time?

I really don't think £4000 a year is a lot, and she will be working, she'll be doing a degree!

What she and perhaps also you need to think about is what people who have lower loans will also get that she will have to pay for. They will have parents who can afford to help them out if they screw up financially - she won't. They may have families who help fund field trips, equipment of better quality, printing costs - she won't. Their families may be abke to help them if they want to do BUNAC student exchange, a summer learning a language, TEFL, internships, expeditions, taking a play to the Edinburgh Festival - she won't. They will pay good quality insurance in case their known student accommodation gets turned over -she needs to afford full replacement costs and hard drive backup too.

She needs to understand what that money could do for her. Yes if she sits in her room or spends it on booze, it's too much. That's not what it is for.

Just in case any potential students read this: They will pay good quality insurance in case their known student accommodation gets turned over -she needs to afford full replacement costs and hard drive backup too. Actually, many parents' home insurance will cover students at uni, and if not then my insurance whilst a student (full contents, including laptop etc) was £11 a year- granted a few years ago, but still, student deals really are excellent and they'll be inundated with them at freshers' week. It's an important thing for students to pay for (but pretty damned cheap)

Of course you're right, and £11 or thereabouts is great - but likely to have an excess if she has to claim, maybe £100 - also £5 for a memory stick to save the irreplaceable? Total of £116 or 2.5% of her total annual income. The thing is she will not have the bank of home to help out if she hasn't got her act together.

There's also her basic student kit/bedding etc - maybe the OP can provide it, maybe she can't. Even a pillow, a duvet and a mug adds up.

£4k a year for everything she's going to need to pay for really isn't that much

It sounds alright to me, especially as that's what's left after her rent is paid.

DS2 gets just over £4K a year for everything. That doesn't even cover his rent. He's at uni for 45 weeks of the year. He has placements to go on which incur travel costs, that have to be paid upfront. He's not meant to work, but he has to because we're a single income family, I'm disabled and can't work.

We're in the group that TinklyLittleLaugh referred to. We're one of the middle income families who find it difficult to help, but we do. We pay for all his food, we help out with bills and we buy books and equipment when he needs them.

As he's doing nursing he won't have tuition fees to pay, nor will he have to pay his bursary back, but he does have to start paying back his loan as soon as he graduates.

She might well get a bursary for low income from the uni too.DS1 managed to save £15k over 4 years of uni without working.With hi course (engineering) the workload was such that he could not have worked in term time or the Xmas and Easter hols