AIBU To judge parents who refuse to pay their contribution to student maintenance loan at Uni?

[ThunderandPharoah]

Have got some friends who are not going to stump up for their parental contribution when their DD starts Uni this year. Can't help thinking that this is a pretty low thing to do as they are not exactly short of money. Would you judge?

And the award for the most ridiculous and tenuous link to Brexit goes to.....

A cost of £51-68k per student degree doesnt sound very attractive. Why would people encourage their kids to go if it might cost them £15k/child.??

Because over their lifetime they'll earn £200,000 more than someone without a degree.

What is outrageous is the cost of student rental accommodation - and the fact that it must be funded when the student isn’t even there. Somebody has to pay it - they (and the parents) are just another casualty of our broken housing market

When my DD is on placement, she has to pay temporary housings costs AND her regular housing.

You don't have to "suddenly" find it. You have 18 years to save

Really? when my DD was born, Uni was free...... who knows what the costs will be for children born now... a lack of thought went into your comment.

But that could be parents spending £10-15k of their money on 2-kids at uni for the kid to maybe earn more.
Plus what the child has a debt of.
Im sure many dont earn that extra 200k (but anyway they will already owe 1/4 of it.)
Im not against parents helping but it is that - help, voluntary
and should be instead given as a loan to the child.
Not even working the system but eg my dad retired around 50. Nowadays with older parenting easily a child born at 40yo would have a 58yo parent so many may well not be working by that age.
The funding is really quite odd as it has to pick those particular years abs what you earn around when your dc are 18.
Or parents who happen to both not be working when their kids are that age. Happened to a friend they got the grant but the parents obviously worked before and since and overall could have funded it as well as any others

Really? when my DD was born, Uni was free...... who knows what the costs will be for children born now... a lack of thought went into your comment.

Tuition was free but no one is expecting you to contribute to that so not really relevant. You are only asked to contribute to maintenance depending on your earnings and that has always been the case.

My DS is looking to go to university next year. The student finance calculator says that based on my salary he'll get a maintenance loan of just over £5k. So far as I can see, this will just about cover his accommodation.

Although I'm earning a decent salary, I'm a single parent, living in rented accommodation in the SE. I also have another teenager living at home, so it's going to be a real struggle to find the money to 'top up' his maintenance loan. I've no idea how I'll manage if my younger DS decides to go the year after.

The system doesn't make sense. The money is a loan, not a grant, so students should be able to decide how much they borrow, up to the maximum available.

Dungeon Tuition was free but no one is expecting you to contribute to that so not really relevant.

Tuition is relevant. We knew we would have to help with rent/maintenance, given income, but knew we could also pay for tuition when it was £3k. Trebling it to £9k meant finding £27k instead of the £9k we had budgeted for, and this was introduced 2 years before ds went to university.

But why would you pay pay for tuition? A student loan covers tuition fees, which are £9250 pa now. Students don't pay it back until they earn enough. It is a graduate tax rather than a loan.

Tuition is relevant. We knew we would have to help with rent/maintenance, given income, but knew we could also pay for tuition when it was £3k. Trebling it to £9k meant finding £27k instead of the £9k we had budgeted for, and this was introduced 2 years before ds went to university.

Yes, but you didn't have to suddenly find the money to pay the tuition fees because there is no expectation for you to pay fees in the first place.

@VioletCharlotte in a salary of £55k it really should not be a struggle to give your ds £76 a week.
You are earning double the average wage, makes a mockery of people who are genuinely struggling to pay rent, food, bills etc.

To be fair, I suspect a salary of £55k in London wouldn't go as far as the same salary in Barnsley.

I think it would be a struggle for most to find an extra £300 or £400. That is before you get into differences between rent costs, commuting, childcare, left over debts, saving for house deposits/ pension, other children and other commitments which will vary hugely according to the individual.

A month

But why would you pay pay for tuition? A student loan covers tuition fees, which are £9250 pa now. Students don't pay it back until they earn enough. It is a graduate tax rather than a loan

I never wanted my DD saddled with this sort of debt, so never budgeted for 9k let alone the 27k Scary has had to find.

The idea its a Graduate Tax is bonkers, so on top of (hopefully) earning more, paying more tax - claiming less in in-work benefits and helping to improve society, they have to pay 9% extra too? (25k is hardly a high wage is it?) and though the debt doesn't count toward a mortgage, the amounts paid each month do come off your disposable income, affecting loan amounts.

Our economy, moving fwd is going to be increasingly reliant on highly skilled workers but instead of offering every encouragement, the UK has decided to make higher education the most expensive in the world.

The idea its a Graduate Tax is bonkers, so on top of (hopefully) earning more, paying more tax - claiming less in in-work benefits and helping to improve society, they have to pay 9% extra too? (25k is hardly a high wage is it?) and though the debt doesn't count toward a mortgage, the amounts paid each month do come off your disposable income, affecting loan amounts.

It is a high amount but as it will be written off in 30 years many graduates (particularly SAHP, I think) will never pay it all off. It doesn't seem sensible to pay the whole amount unless you are certain your DC will end up having to pay it all themselves. The only people I know who have paid it all for their DC are very well off and barely notice a payout of 18k/year.

I think it would be a struggle for most to find an extra £300 or £400. That is before you get into differences between rent costs, commuting, childcare, left over debts, saving for house deposits/ pension, other children and other commitments which will vary hugely according to the individual.

That is why you have to save in advance. You have 18 years to save/think about it

You don’t have 18 years on that kind of salary. Most people I know on that have had years on far lower with childcare costs . Nigh on impossible to save. You also don’t know at birth if your child will be uni material.

Because over their lifetime they'll earn £200,000 more than someone without a degree.

In the past, yes. Now, or in 20 years? Doubtful.

You don’t have 18 years on that kind of salary. Most people I know on that have had years on far lower with childcare costs . Nigh on impossible to save. You also don’t know at birth if your child will be uni material.

You don't have to save much each month for the to be a enough by the time your child is 18. I only saved £40 a month in an ISA. Even if you started saving once the child is at school and childcare costs are lower you have 13 years.

You also don’t know at birth if your child will be uni material.

If they're not uni material you can keep the savings for yourself!

£30k for 2 kids on salaries 30-55 k is not a small amount to save. If it was we’d all be doing it to give kids a leg on the property ladder and we should frankly not be wasting taxpayers money on CB.

£30k for 2 kids on salaries 30-55 k is not a small amount to save. If it was we’d all be doing it to give kids a leg on the property ladder and we should frankly not be wasting taxpayers money on CB.

That's not true. You don't even have to save the child benefit in an ISA to cover university costs. I can understand that if your children aren't that academic and won't get a good degree anyway it may be better to give them the money you have saved for "a leg on the property ladder". However, if your children are reasonably academic I think the money would be better spent on their education because if they good a good degree and job then can pay for their own deposit.

You don't even have to save all the child benefit in an ISA to cover university costs.

I know a few parents who pay the £9k each year up front. It’s the new elite divide. It’s not just about the expectation that their children will be high earners. It’s also about your children having freedom and control over their life, especially being able to go and travel/work abroad without the state poking its nose in and imposing regular income reporting obligations, against the threat of huge interest penalties and early repayment. It’s the new, even more extreme version of ‘them and us’ education.

My experience at university was very much that most student did primarily live off their loans, plus the overdraft, which they worked off in the summer.

The maintenance loan was £3500, halls rent at the time was £2300 for 40 weeks. £1200 plus £1000 overdraft gave £60 a week. In a cheap, northern city, that wasn't actually bad for living expenses (since all bills were included in the rent). You could get wasted for £10 in certain clubs, and a huge pizza was a fiver. Parents did tend to top up a little, but it tended to take the form of occasional £2-300 top ups than a regular fixed amount. Summer jobs would refill the overdraft, and allow for a further top up.

Caveat - I largely knew arts students. The library would supply most resources, J-Store the rest.

It sounds quite ridiculous coming from that background that students would need huge parental contributions.

In part, i will be out of touch with living expenses, but at the same time, I have seen threads on here where parents agonise about spending extra on a studio flat or an ensuite double room for a student, and fret about them buying nice clothes and decent food. Which is very, VERY far from student life as I remember, and doesn't sound at all fun!