Financial support at university

[Tevion28]

Im already fretting about ds and how he will cope at university financially as after accomdation is paid he only has £540 left for next 3 months. He will probably get a job butvibwas wondering how much do you give your dc each week if anything

@MyLandlordIsAWOL @Howshouldibehave like I said that was only my experience, also the experience of all my house mates and we all did “hard degrees” including STEM. I’m not saying he’ll only do 12 hours of learning a week I’m saying he’ll only have to attend 12 hours in which his attendance will be marked rather then the 9-3 of school. Trust me it came as a shock to me how little contact time we had and this was at a very good university but they train you to learn independently. However that meant I could fit my shifts at work around my hours and then study around that. It won’t be easy but it’s doable. (How else do you think students have all the time to party non stop 🤣)

He must have known all about this all ages ago? It's a bit late in the day for it to be coming as a shock.

His attitude to not working in the summer is shocking.

The student loans system is unfair simply because it assumes that parents have disposable income. It takes nothing into account, not mortgage, childcare costs, debts, bills, how many children at Uni, it is based purely on what your P60 for the previous tax year says.

Not everyone is able to give money on top of the loans. More students are competing for p/t jobs than ever, prices of everything has risen, accommodation costs are huge. It's doable but it's tough.

I send my boys the odd 20 quid, sometimes a food order but they know not to expect it and they worked out how to live as cheaply as possible very quickly.

Believe it or not my ds is only in uni 5 hours a week the rest is all over Skype online etc

blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/09/martin-lewis--how-much-the-govt-expects-parents-to-give-their-ch/

I haven't read the whole thread. Someone might have posted this already

Am uni student, suggest looking into ~alternative methods~ for procuring textbooks and reading materials

EG. definitely don't check out the z-library or libgen sites which totally do not have many assigned textbooks and academic papers for free in multiple formats (hint)

You can also get free chrome extensions or mobile apps to help you read PDFs and ebooks easily on a phone/laptop

I got plenty of exercise just from walking back and forth to uni every day (big city campus, all housing miles away) - exploring the local area might be a good alternative to the gym

Look for discounted lunch items that you can bundle together for an informal evening meal (my mum would probably hate that I did this regularly, but it worked out fine)

My DD is fortunate enough to get the full loan as her DF has retired. She also is automatically entitled to a bursary of £500 per term, though she actually gets the payments at the end of each term.
I work out that your son should be left with £739. Assuming he comes home during holidays that would leave him approximately £65 per week while at uni. That sounds doable. There is a brilliant Facebook group called WIWIKAU ( What I wish I knew about university) Lots of tips and support for parents and students
www.facebook.com/groups/488235648182391/

Parents are supposed to help and if not, he needs to get a part-time job. If he only had 5 hours of contact time a week, then he has loads more time than other students. He also has more money than most students.

Could you teach him how to budget? Like how much money he should spend on food shops? Gym memberships are pricey and he shouldn’t get one if he can’t afford essentials. If his dad is helping him with travel costs, can’t you buy his course books?

What is his accommodation like? Is there a cheaper alternative? I bet he has a double bed and en-suite for that price.

@MyLandlordIsAWOL @Howshouldibehave oh would you look at that, OPs son only has 5 contact hours ! Looks like I wasn’t bullshitting after all 🤣🤣

[quote Henryhoover12]**@MyLandlordIsAWOL* @Howshouldibehave* oh would you look at that, OPs son only has 5 contact hours ! Looks like I wasn’t bullshitting after all 🤣🤣[/quote]
You said ‘a couple of hours a week max’.

How many do you actually think ‘a couple’ is?!

If the rent is not divided evenly and the last instalment is small, then is there a possibility of 0% loan in the form of an overdraft? That is how I survived at uni and it was easy to arrange - may be different now of course. I basically got into debt every term and then worked in the holidays to pay it off. When I left I had less than 1k overdraft which was not too onerous to clear when I got a job.

I would def say a monthly or weekly amount is useful as its regular income even if its £40 a month that is enough for the very basics of food. He should have worked over the summer really whatever he was doing as this would give him the op to work in the holidays as if he was a good worker shops, pubs and cafes would have him back like a shot over holiday times etc. Done now so get him to look for something regular local to him and maybe even apply for chrimbo jobs near home. He needs to learn never to turn down the opp to earn as with no savings to fall back on he is vulnerable.

Similar situation daughter didn't work over the summer. She only gets minimum loan don't consider us high earners as have three other children and high mortgage costs. Loan doesn't cover the accommodation costs. Should have planned better for sure. Anyone else in my situation with younger children they definitely needs summer jobs and need to start saving now! Having a panic now!

I didn’t get anything from my parents, I worked.

[quote Henryhoover12]**@MyLandlordIsAWOL* @Howshouldibehave* oh would you look at that, OPs son only has 5 contact hours ! Looks like I wasn’t bullshitting after all 🤣🤣[/quote]
Actually, she said the rest was over Skype, so timetabled, not something you could skip to work in a supermarket…

@Tevion28

He didn't work over the summer as he said he was off to uni and would have to leave anyway and will until he gets to uni and get one

Sorry but this is where he went wrong. Dd worked in the summer holiday after the first year of A levels and before uni and saved up £2k. If you can’t afford to give him anything then you can’t afford it. Tell him to get his skates on and get a part time job and next year get cheaper accommodation.

After accommodation is paid we top DS up to £100 a week to live on (food, stationery, clothing, transport) we pay his mobile.

He doesn't get this when home, being fed and housed by us.

It's tight, and all socialising and extra hobbies he funds from a part time job.

£540 over 3 months, is £41.50pw, which is plenty to live on.

My dc have all lived on less than that pw whilst at university.

No, it might not stretch to gym membership, but maybe he should have thought of that before making this daft choice :

He didn't work over the summer as he said he was off to uni and would have to leave anyway and will until he gets to uni and get one

He could have easily had Up to about £3k sitting in his bank account had he chosen to.
This is a life lesson for him. As he chose not to bother, then he will have to budget his way carefully through his first term.

What I am surprised at though is, if he is on a full loan, then how he has so little money left ? Has he selected very expensive accommodation ? Usually the students on the full loan are the ones with the most cash, in all my student dcs' experience.

We have made DS’s money up to the full loan - no more - but he has never spent £7k plus on accommodation. Is that the only option? Or did he go for en-suite because he wants it? If so, he’d be on his own if he was mine.

we need to focus on accommodation providers who are charging more than the cost of a mortgage for a tiny room that the students aren't even allowed to inhabit during certain holiday periods

Agreed. The city near me is permitting more and more student accommodation to be built as the two universities here admit more students to fleece them of £9250 and then they're fleeced of another £6700 for a box to live in and a shared kitchen.

Parents on here proudly proclaiming "we're paying DC's accommodation costs" should be up in arms about how they and they're kids are being exploited.

He needs to get a part time job. There are plenty of bar jobs, waiting tables, etc, available at the moment.

If he's on the maximum maintenance loan then parents shouldn't need to top it up.

Don’t forget that every contact hour comes with an expected number of hours of independent work. For some the multiplication rate is quite high which really can limit how many hours a student could work. It’s why one of my degrees forbid students from employment.

We pay DD1's accomodation which = £180 per week, and she has a double room + en suite, but it's not catered. She only gets the minimum maintenance loan which = £145 per week during term time, so she's quite happy and comfortable living off that and feeding herself. We do still pay for her phone, gym membership and any travel costs though. She also has a credit card on our account which is only to be used in emergencies.

When she comes home for the Summer we'll obviously feed her and not charge her any board, but if she wants spending money then she'll have to get some work.

Everyone saying that the OP has to top up her DS' living costs - on a low income she likely can't afford to.

When I went to university (20+ years ago admittedly) I had no help from my mum as she was a disabled single parent on benefits. There was no money there to help.

My DS1 is going to university next week. At his university gym membership is included if you live in university accommodation, but the university has reasonable membership for students anyway (around £10 per month). So that isn't necessarily a huge expense. They also have a system where you can register to apply for jobs on campus (eg in university bars) which are guaranteed to not conflict with your timetable. There are also plenty of jobs in the town in hospitality and retail etc, although not the same guarantee of flexibility.

I'm not giving DS1 a regular top up. He has his grant and loan, plus has won two bursaries. He also has some savings from when he turned 18, which he has divided equally into separate savings accounts for year 1, year 2 and year 3. He has some money saved from a summer job, and is planning on getting a few hours work during term time. I'll be paying for a cupboard and freezer stock up shop next week (lots of pasta!), but then I really want him to learn to stand on his own two feet.

I'm finding though that I'm fretting about anything and everything at the moment, so anxious about him going. It might feel better once he's settled in.

He needs to get a part time job. Its not rocket science. He should have had one over summer. My DS was not allowed to just sit at home playing computer games - he worked in hospitality after he finished school. I don't want him to get a job whilst at uni if possible but when he's home he can pick it up for a few shifts at Christmas, easter, summer hopefully to top himself up.