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?

cyclingmad

Just think about how this sounds:
So if your living st home to go to uni you don't need to take the maintenance loan and shouldn't

Sounds very much like you are saying people living at home shouldn’t be taking maintenance loans.

Take all the loan you can get!

I have 14 year old twins who are fairly academic. I see both driving and university as important and I hope we can achieve both somehow.

Both my brother and me were lucky to be able to get a full grant for uni a long time ago now.

I've always known we'd have to fund uni - and plan ahead - but we didn't know we'd have twins and have to pay for two simultaneously!

We are on less than you OP, our combined earnings are in the 50s but still only qualify for the same loan you are being quoted on 70k.

Since birth I have saved bits in a child trust fund - around £50 each a month, even when I was made redundant and we lived off DH salary of £27k. Sending the children to uni was always a priority as I dropped out, DH, 47, never went and his salary will never increase beyond the early 30ks.
My brother and me were the 1st in our family to go to uni and nobody in DH's family has ever gone, so I will do what I can to send mine - downsizing our house, taking a 2nd job etc.

We now have around 10k and hope to have 15k each, maybe 18 for their 18th birthday.

We are lucky that we have several unis on our doorstep and live in a fairly cheap city. Hoping they might stay at home to cut costs further.

OP, do you work full time? Sorry if it's been mentioned upthread, but if not then can you increase your hours?

Definitely cut down on clubs. We have always been quite strict with what we'd spend on these - probably 1k per year.

Good luck.

@Alovera

Same for me. Everyone saying ‘get a student loan’ hasn’t cottoned on that the amount you can borrow is means tested and the max amount is less than most accommodation if your parents earn over a certain amount.

OP I took a year out and saved like mad plus then this job allowed me to transfer to uni city and work part time. All holidays I worked full time hours again. My parents also gave me £100 per month for food. It was quite tough to see my peers receiving double the amount of money on student loan day!

My daughter says the same thing! When her friends get their loan it’s party time - hers doesn’t even cover her rent!

Op, my daughter gets the minimum loan and we cover the shortfall in her rent. I also give her money when she needs it, probably average £100 per month. She does have a part time job as well but in the current climate she can’t earn much.

It’s a struggle for them but I hope your daughter will not be put off. Even earning £50 a week will be ok when she’s adapted to frugal student life.

It was quite tough to see my peers receiving double the amount of money on student loan day

I always got the max loan - I grew up on a HA estate and got FSM. You probably wouldn't have wanted to swap with me.

If she’s Durham standard, I’m guessing she’s looking at 3 x A at A Level. A number of unis do £3k scholarships for 3 As, eg Lancaster, Cardiff, Kent. It’s only £1k a year but every little helps. Lancaster bumps it up to £5k if you get 2 A stars.

@Camomila
Same here. Max loan, single parent earning less than 10k a year, living on a rough HA estate. It quite irks me when people feel envious of our loan, or just downright angry about it, because I bet they wouldn't swap lives.

Well maintenance loan is to cover accommodation costs so in majority of cases you don't need to take it out.

And taking it to fund for other costs is an expensive way of borrowing money.

@cyclingmad

No a maintenance loan is to cover maintenance costs. Of course that includes accommodation but also everything else as well.

[quote monkeyonthetable]@Cheesess - do you mind if I ask how that is possible? 24hrs pw, plus, presumably going to and from work. And you got a first? How did you find time for lectures, research and reading, revisions, essay writing or lab work? I just can't see how you would fit it all in.
I'm stuck dumb with admiration and confusion. [/quote]
I did this! Although I didn't get a first, I got a 2:1. Went to college at 19 in 2005 I was an independent student as I lived without family. I saved for a year, went to college the next year. My degree is in chemistry so labs 9-5 Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday finished at 1and start work in next from 2-9. Thursdays all day college, Friday finish at 3, start work from 5-9. Sat and Sunday 9-6 or 10-7.
So 27 hours a week I worked and college approx 33 hours a week. It was tough, very tough but doable in your situation op.
After all that struggle I graduated in 2009 in the middle of the recession!

cyclingmad a maintenance loan is to cover all living costs. Accommodation is just one living cost of many. Students also need to pay for food, books, travel, clothes, study related equipment etc.
And if a household is living on the breadline then the student might need to contribute towards the things that they use in the household - electricity, gas and water. The more people living in the house then the higher utility bills are.
You seem to really not be able to grasp how different life is for those living in poverty and the fact that not everyone can house their student children without the student covering their own living costs.
It isn’t mean parenting, it’s simply the case that when you are in poverty you literally might have no choice but to expect your student child to cover their own overheads.
The maintenance loan for students living with parents is lower to account for the fact that living at home is cheaper than living elsewhere but it is acknowledgement that they do still have living costs.

This isn’t a case of: I earn 70k and don’t want to give up my luxuries to help pay for my student child.
It is a case of : I can barely feed myself and would really like to help my student child but sadly cannot afford to.

"And taking it to fund for other costs is an expensive way of borrowing money." @cyclingmad please read the Money Saving Expert advice on this. I don't feel you are giving good informed advice here. The interest rate on the loan is virtually irrelevant because the repayment system is nothing like a normal loan.

@cyclingmad was just responding to me asking about the maintenance loan when living at home.
I genuinely wasn’t sure what else it would be expected to be used for but thanks to everyones responses I now get it.
I hadn’t factored in the fact that child benefit etc stopped for the parents and of course, parents on the breadline or low income will appreciate some contribution from their child via the maintenance loan.
I was asking a very specific question regarding my own circumstances

@Camomila
Can you explain how you went for free
My grandson is from a disadvantaged background also and wants to go next year
I thought everyone got a loan they had to payback

His elder broTher has just started This week.
He pays £500 for a one room apartment with ensuite and share of kitchen.
His parents pay £425 for a large 4 bed house with 2 bathrooms and good sized gardens

Shocked at what he has to pay
It’s big business

My DD is 17 months old and we started her Uni fund at birth. Every bit of money she gets gifted is going in the pot. We are aiming to be able to get to £30k+ with a similar amount for a house deposit. If Uni not her thing then obviously dhe can have it anyway.

@bustybetty obviously that’s no use now, but I think a lot of parents save for their kids. My parents had a similar income to yours and saved for us. That was the norm in my circles and that was when tuition was free and you got a grant not a loan! My parents paid £5k a year for my accommodation and £200 a month in the mid 90’s so I graduated without debt. My brother didn’t go so just got a bigger house deposit.

I did work pt from 16 though through Uni, that was for beer and clothes money

I’ve just found this thread, my mum and dad cumulatively were on half that, I did part time work and got a loan.

Errr she stays home and goes local ?
Maybe get her to do a useful degree such as nursing midwifery or social work. You get a bursary and a guaranteed job. Also you pay for her accommodation if she moves out and she pays rest herself

I graduated recently and had a very low income previously to starting and my maintenance loan also didn't cover my accomodation costs for the year. I had to work enough hours throughout studying to make up the difference AND have something to buy food with. It was not easy, especially as my degree was one of the more time consuming ones with tonnes of coursework.

you prioritising your expenses is going to be the key point, I assume things like what you're playing now for hobbies for your eldest can be redirected into university contributions but you will have to give some things up/be more realistic in what luxuries you can have if you want to fund your DD living outside the home
I agree that a summer/part-time job would help, but you're not wrong to note they're hard to come by atm.

One thing I've not seen mentioned yet (though I haven't read every post) is you say your girls represent England at something - depending on what it is it might be worth looking at if there are any grants/scholarships available. UK unis aren't as extravagant with their athletes as some, but I know a few years ago there were certainly funding/discounts on offer, though this depends on them competing in the right event and wanting to go to a uni which has a team/reason to support that.

An alternative is that your DD postpone Uni and work for a few years to save up. (I did this, though it was a long time ago. I went to Uni when I was in my mid 20s and saved £7k per year to pay Uni fees, plus £5k per year to pay my rent and everything else - books, food, travel etc. I also worked at least 16hrs a week throughout Uni, usually more. Obviously costs are now more expensive, but this may be an option to keep in mind. Also depending on what she wants to study, she may find an employer willing to help fund her further education.)

Your income is quite high, my oldest 3 are through university, another going in September 21 and that's been on a joint income of about 35k. They all worked and that may not have been ideal but there was no choice. From an interview competency perspective it's been great for them and they're very mature.
It's tough but I think you just need to sit down and discuss it fully re expectations etc.

To be honest we struggled as the amount of parental contebrution was based on earnings not avaliable income. Because our mortgage was high , and took quite a bit of out saleries.. it was hard cf ro someone with same parental contribution with less outgoings. We had a few lean years as dc went ro unis which had expensive accom as well as many richer parents than us who paid all the course costs. .
My advice wd be
Lower your outgoings before they go as the assessment is based on income.
Make sure that thay claim any bursries .. both our dc got given i think a cple of grand for their grades and going to the uni they chosw which did help a lot.
Be careful which accom they apply for .. some unis do all.diff types of uni.. we paid about lk more than we shd have for accom as one dc was given very up graded room and we said ok .. wereas my freind refused to pay for a big wn suit and the uni then offerd a small basic less costly room .didnt rhink of that.
Both our dc had part time jobs and often unis recognise this need and assist re jobs such as job in student union bar.
Hope this helps.

Year out for her to work/save, part-time job, student loan, holiday job to save up, overdraft & parental contribution. 🤷🏻‍♀️
On a household income of £70k, you’ll be expected to contribute, unless you become legally estranged.
I work in HE. The model above is standard, unless you’re from a super wealthy background.

We make DCs money up to what a student could have if they could take the full loan for living costs - about 9k. So he borrows the fees plus 4K and we pay 5k a year . He’s doing a four year course so this will cost us 20k. We have an 8 year gap between him and DC2 so have a few years break . We had planned to pull down money from stakeholder pensions which we took out as savings plans but then the government changed the rules so we can’t access this until we’re 55 so not quite there yet. We have a gross income of 100k between us, that’s how we can manage it after tutors, driving lessons etc. He does a full-on course but does work in a supermarket at holidays and is saving that for a car.
If your DC is looking at Durham etc the hall fees will be high. There is a big difference between accommodation costs and the top unis know they can charge high rates.
Martin Lewis tried to get govt ministers to make the expectations that parents contribute this much very clear - tackled Jo Johnson a few years ago - but it is still not made clear in advance. It’s not even made clear when they apply. I’ve heard a lot of parents say they had no idea that what their DC could borrow for living costs would not even cover hall fees. I work in a uni, that’s how I know.