Affording Uni

[bustybetty]

My daughter (year 13) is considering uni. We are a normal family with no parental help (handouts) hubby is on 50K and my work is about 20K, we live in a modest house and have three teens as well. My question is I have just looked at the maintenance loan she would be entitled to and it doesn't even cover the cost of the accommodation - how do people afford this? We don't have spare money and I coupon where I can, we don't have phone contracts or gym memberships. I don't understand how most people afford to send their children to uni. Currently I'm thinking she will have to take a year out to work to be able to afford it.

ideas anyone?

Thank you to anyone who replied to my comment, I genuinely thought her dads income would be taken into account as that's what he told me! I don't have a partner, so it'll just be my income by the looks of things which has cheered me up a bit!

I'm on the same household income as you, OP, and my eldest has just started. I pay for his accommodation which, this year, includes all his bills. It costs me £616 a month. He is using his maintenance loan for everything else.

I think it really depends aswell on the course. If like me you have 8 hours a week for a humanities subject it's easy to work and make time for the massive reading but if you have 30 hours + contact time it's obviously a lot harder to work a part time job.

It’s amazing so many parents on the thread see it as their responsibility to support their child even past the age of 18.

Well the govt has decided that it is the parents responsibility.
The system is different than it used to be. Grants no longer exist. If the child cannot get a job and you won’t give your assessed contribution then you are effectively denying them the opportunity to further their education. I’m not sure what kind of parent is happy to do that.

@Mollymarvelous70

Is there a class divide on this . All my working class friends managed just fine with extra jobs and living very frugally. Making decisions re unis and accommodation accordingly we didn’t expect parental support because we know our parents couldn’t or wouldn’t pay. ‘Back in my day we were in the army at 17 etc etc’ . Not sure mine even believed in higher education was appropriate unless you were posh . That’s another story..

It’s amazing so many parents on the thread see it as their responsibility to support their child even past the age of 18. Mine didn’t and I didn’t expect them to. It was my choice to go to university. One could argue they were financially abusive ( even paid rent during my gap year when I was saving ! ) , but I managed fine . There is some growing up to do here for some kids that expect support but havn’t done the numbers or can’t budget and just show mummy and daddy the brochures.

From the sound of it OP your daughter has some expectation of you to support her . You quickly need to establish what you can or are willing to support her with and then help her to work out what she can and can’t afford to do based on that. Then at least she can make informed decisions.

The divide is mainly because that is how the government set up the student finance - the maintenance loan is based on parental income. I can kind of see why that is the case but it does seem like something of an oddity given that university students are generally adults.

@Belladonna12 I certainly didn’t 10 years ago but I know some friends 5-10 years older came away with no student debt due to grants . I recall getting a loan which covered my rent but that was it. Then earned the rest. I feel bad for the those that now have to pay £9k per year tuition!

The system isn’t fair. Should it be means tested on parents income at all.. grants yes but loans ?

Its rubbish, we are in similar position, we have 4 teens and our net income once you take out mortgage, bills, groceries etc doesnt go as far as some people think, and of course we get no child benefit either.
My DD gets a maintenance loan of 4k ,the cheapest accommodation at her uni was just over 5k but was oversubscribed so she got her second choice / second cheapest at 5.5k , looking at a variety of unis these are average prices for accommodation.
So shes 1.5 k short before she even eats, its rubbish. I have increased my hours at work to help pay for her, she had some savings but like you dont have any wider family help , its really tough and atm very hard for students to find work to help supplement their income. If there is a uni she can commute to from home then i would recommend looking at that and also investigate bursaries and grants just in case she can get that way ( though fairly slim chance!) Otherwise its just a case of saving as much as you can and working as much as possible

Also meant to add student bank accounts often give you an overdraft facility of 1k per year, not great as its more debt and needs to be repaid and repayment isnt linked to income/employment but it can help.plug the gap

[quote Mollymarvelous70]@Belladonna12 I certainly didn’t 10 years ago but I know some friends 5-10 years older came away with no student debt due to grants . I recall getting a loan which covered my rent but that was it. Then earned the rest. I feel bad for the those that now have to pay £9k per year tuition!

The system isn’t fair. Should it be means tested on parents income at all.. grants yes but loans ?[/quote]
I agree. Considering that it is now a loan rather than a grant it would be fairer to ignore parent income

I’m in my 40’s. Back when I was university age, I recall having a student finance assessment letter after all the forms were filled in that said along the lines of your have been awarded £x, the expected parental contribution is £y based on the information provided’. The government still has that expectation but it’s not laid out quite so explicitly these days.

I think some posters think that parents who contribute are cosseting their kids, but that’s not how the system is set up. A good starting point would be to look at the maximum loan is for students whose household income is low, as someone has calculated that this is the minimum that students can get by on. Then look at what your child would be eligible for and work out the difference. This is the gap that the government expect parents to fill - it’s not always affordable, and the maximum loan amount is not always a realistic living cost bearing in mind the spiralling cost of rent alone. There’s a calculator on the student finance England website

Exactly. A parental contribution is expected. So I’m contributing. It’s not spoiling, it’s being responsible. Back in the day when there were grants I only got the minimum because we were middle class. My parents helped out with a covenant - anyone remember those? I still got into debt and I don’t want my kids to be struggling like that. I am paying it forward.

[quote bustybetty]@Seeline thanks for understanding our position. You have hit the nail on the head that many people here have not seen. I looked up the loans yesterday and was shocked to realise they don't cover the accommodation even. She does work part time and has had experience of a few jobs locally but none would go anyway to making up the short-fall. I had naively thought that the loan would cover the accommodation and we would be providing the food and pin money. I don't think many people realise how much they will have to fund this. We don't live on credit and HP like many do and live to our means, we don't have expensive cars and in fact my children laugh at my 'old banger of a car', I sometimes think I am missing a trick other parents seem to afford everything and I can only think its maybe family money? Anyway, I am hoping she gets an apprenticeship rather than uni although her 6th form seems to be encouraging her to apply to uni despite the costs![/quote]
All of our 4 went to university doing undergrad/post-grad quals. They all have great, well paid professional careers now.

If they are clever enough to go, on 70k a year you should be able to fund the shortfall.

We paid for the rent and their loans covered food and other bills. It can be done if the will is there.

To hope they take a less academic route is fine if that is their bent, but I would hope you are also encouraging then to apply to uni if that is what they want and are capable of it?

If not, you are doing them a serious disservice.

OP if your daughter is at national representation level for a sport, Durham also offer quite good Vice Chancellor's scholarships for sport. If that would help...

@yearinyearout

* Being a single parent wouldn't necessarily help in this situation. My middle daughter is almost 15 and she's determined to go to uni. Her dad has already confirmed he will stop paying CM as soon as he's able to and wont contribute a further penny. But my understanding is that his income will be taken into account as well as mine when they work out what she's entitled to claim. * Pretty sure it's only the one (resident parent) household income taken into account

It is.

@Totallycluelessoverhere I didn’t mean that in a sarcastic tone , I’m genuinely surprised so many do support their adult kids as it wasn’t the norm from my area but then we did get a grant of £3k per year . Many parents didn’t have a clue on the finances but clearly having seen this thread that’s not the norm.

I had a read up on it and can’t believe grants were scrapped in 2016! Students and their parents are really getting it much worse now. Grants were tiered so even middle earners might have got something. Now it’s all loans and then they are capped based on income.

The first time I voted was for the Lib Dem’s on their promise to scrap student fees after they heavily campaigned on campus . Remember that one!!

I hate this current system where the students finances are based on their parents income. I know of several students who have faced hardship because through no fault of their own they got the lower maintenance grant and their parents couldn't or wouldn't help them out.

I do understand the thinking behind it but unless the higher paid parents are forced to subsidise the student then it's very unfair.

We have a household income similar to the OP's and two dc's at uni, it costs us over £1000 a month as we pay for their accommodation, the maintenance grant is there for everything else.

If you really can't afford to help her then as others have suggested see if there's a course nearby where she won't have the extra cost of accommodation.

Personally I'm happy for my dc's not to work during term time, I'd rather they just had their coursework to worry about, but I know lots do and manage just fine, so perhaps that's another option for your dc - if they can actually get any work, hopefully more cafes and bars might be open and busy by the time she starts, those types of places where students work. Good luck to her.

Maybe we need a system whereby parents assessed contributions are just deducted at source like taxes and diverted to the student to avoid parents not paying and leaving their children in hardship or unable to study at all.

We have a household income of 50K with four kids and pay £350 a month for our eldest son's Uni accommodation.

@Malin92 well obviously as explained on here not all students can finance themselves if the loan doesn't cover their rent and they can't find work. If parents can't afford it that can't be helped but families with incomes far lower than 70K manage to plan ahead and put money away for their kids .

@Totallycluelessoverhere

Maybe we need a system whereby parents assessed contributions are just deducted at source like taxes and diverted to the student to avoid parents not paying and leaving their children in hardship or unable to study at all.

I like that idea. I'm sure there would be some parents that are unhappy about it but at least it would give all students an equal start.

I know from other threes on MN that some parents pay their dcs' accommodation costs, but can I reassure some of you that this is not the norm.

Let's face it, if you pay the accommodation, that leaves a minimum of £4K loan (ahem, not grant as some keep posting) for food and fun, which over 35 weeks is about £115 a week - a fairly large amount!

I do sub dd as I said, but more on the lines of food money for the week (£20). Her loan is above the minimum tho as we are lower earners.

If you are only getting the minimum maintenance loan due to your family income university will be very expensive (£5k per child per year or more). My dd was at a London Uni with £10k pa accommodation costs and a maintenance loan of £4K. We saved for her from age 11 as it was clear it would be unaffordable otherwise. We only have one child and would hate to have 4 to pay for. I was shocked when I realised it would cost us £30k for dd's uni living costs on top of her loans but clearly London was an expensive option to go for and the same amount could have funded 2 kids at a Uni with cheaper accommodation costs.

If your income were lower and your child qualified for the full maintenance loan things would be more affordable without big changes to your current budget. If you give up work you might be better off as the student loan would be bigger.

If not then cutting all the expensive classes and after school activities would presumably give you £15k pa to spend on uni costs which should be do-able even if you have 2 or 3 kids at uni at the same time. In fact you probably don't even need to do this as if you are spending £4K pa per child on activities then once a child is at uni you will save £4K on activities plus some more cash on food and can give it to them for accommodation instead.

Alternatively a friend of mine's dd worked for 15 months after leaving school to fund herself through uni. I think this makes kids value their education and not drift into a course they are not that motivated about.

She will have to work part time. At Durham, there are jobs available only for students at the students' union, as well as college bars and (in some colleges) as wait staff at formals as well. Most colleges at Durham are still catered, so I'm hoping the £7k will include her meals - I'm a bit out of touch with how much things cost these days.

She should be able to work in her summer holiday before uni - she will need to save from that too.

Durham also has some less formal hardship funds and scholarships within colleges, so do look into those as well.

I'm in the US and have two in uni now. Annual costs for each, all in with housing and meals, is about $50k. They both won academic scholarships or the costs would be higher. We're saving a bit now with DD because she's remote, so it's tuition only, no room and board.

We knew this was coming obviously so have been putting aside money every month for each in special tax-advantaged education accounts since they were toddlers. It's still a stretch, especially with both going at the same time.

I've just read all the OP's posts and they make no sense to me. If the OP is spending her entire income (£20K) on her 4 children's activities, she should have £5K to spare when her DD leaves home. Plus the cost of food, clothes, etc that she usually buys for DD. In addition, one of her other children is starting an apprenticeship and will be earning their own money. So I don't get why spending a few £Ks on university is such an impossible thing?
And if her DD is academic enough to go to Durham University, surely OP will be doing her a massive disservice if she pushes her into doing an apprenticeship in order to save money?
Why is OP happy to shell out vast sums of money on sports (or whatever the activity is) but not on university?