How much financial help did you give dc at uni?

[candle18]

My oldest is moving away for uni and I have another two who are younger, 13 and 15.
It obviously depends on what someone can afford but did you fund quite a bit of your child’s time at uni or did you expect them to work as much as needed to subsidise student loan.
Trying to decide what would be reasonable.

Bit harsh , the mortgage may have come well before uni was on the cards.

I agree with this but, in our case the children took loans for their £9250 and dh paid for all accommodation and £200/250 a month for food etc

because of covid he also paid for two foundation years and a masters

they had jobs over the summer but not during term for various reason

ds2 is staying at home for the next two years and I’m really torn about whether we should contribute at least part of our ‘savings’ towards his final year of tuition. It’s difficult because the whole point was that all the children would have the same level of debt

DS is just about to finish.

Hid dad pays his rent (£425 a month) and I give him an allowance of £200 a month. He has 2 part time jobs.

DS was only entitled to the minimum maintenence loan.

Absolutely this. Martin Lewis has been campaigning for the expected parental contribution to be clearly stated - it's not insignificant, I'm expecting to contribute about £6k per year.

Me and my brother stayed at home for our degrees. Mine was a professional degree (Midwifery) so that was my parents contribution, I paid no rent, had my meals cooked for me washing done. Complete god send whilst I was doing 12hr day and night shifts. My brother did an 'on the job' degree so he paid a % of his earnings as keep. I then did the same when I started full time work until we both bought houses with our respective partners and moved out about 3 years after we completed our degrees.

I haven't got to this stage with my son yet but can talk about my own experience.

I went to uni in 2005. I didn't have any financial help at all from parents. I had the full loan thankfully so used that and worked in the holidays. I did Physics so my term time was very intense with labs and lectures which is why I worked in the hols.

It was tough at times but I did it and just budgeted.

I knew people who got a lot of help from parents and then there were many in-between. There's no right or wrong answer- it depends what you can afford.

I knew people who got a lot of help from parents and then there were many in-between. There's no right or wrong answer- it depends what you can afford.

I think there is a "right answer" to the extent that if a child's loan is reduced because of their parents' income, the parents should at least make up difference.

We were living overseas when ds started at university so we paid fees and all living expenses in year one. He had two paid summer internships (year one and year two) and we paid his rent and fees in years two and three and he used some of the money saved from his internships to pay for gym membership, going out etc.Grandparents also gave him £1k per year at university.

Dd received minimum loan, we pay additional £3k towards rent and then £60 week for shopping etc. She also has a pt job, she manages well.

Ds gets the minimum loan which covers his rent and leaves a small amount left over. Dh and I each put £100 into his account each month to cover food/other expenses, but he also has a car so needs to fund fuel out of that. We also pay for phone and dh covered his MOT costs recently. Ds works Christmas and summer holidays as a supermarket casual temp (he previously had a p/t job there while at 6th form) to earn anything extra. I've also helped out with some of his household bills this academic year.

My parents gave me £1200/term 11 years ago which pretty much covered my rent which included bills. I then lived off my maintenance loan and a small part time job I had in the first year

Mine get almost the maximum maintenance loan because I am a single parent on a not all that high income - their father is deceased. On top of that they get monthly allowance from me, which means they don't have to work, and they have decent savings. DD1 used her options to volunteer in a field related to her degree so she has work experience, and is now working part time and looking for jobs in the run up to graduating. DD2 is disabled and working alongside her studies would negatively impact her health.

You should be paying something at least unless you really can’t afford it. Loans are not meant to fully support students.

I intend to fully support mine as much as possible. I’d rather they didn’t have to take loans - the repayment terms are getting less and less favourable and the interest rates are going up and up. So I have started saving now when they are in primary school.

My parents paid nothing for me but I got a full grant and there were no fees then.

I was actually charged rent 😂

I got £230 a month bursary to live off and £150 went to my dad who I lived with 😂

Thanks Dad 😬

My parents were very generous.
I took the most student loan I could, which paid for the course fees. My parents then paid for my accomodation, and gave me £200 a month for "other stuff". I wasn't a big drinker/partier, preferring to just stay in and do quiet stuff, so the £200 added up pretty fast. This was in the early 00s.

To this day, yearly, my mum pays me back for my student loan contributions. I don't earn that much from my "main job", so it's about £500 a year.

That’s awful @PaddlingLikeADuck I worked in a law center at uni and knew several students who sued their parents for maintenance. And it’s disgusting that they had to resort to that - we should have the same opinion of people who don’t maintain university level children as we do of those who don’t maintain school age children. I’d like to see the government make it easier to enforce the maintenance too.

buying a big house isn’t an excuse to deprive your child. Unless you genuinely can’t afford it, you should be paying towards your children at uni, at least the minimum.

My DC went to university the year before they stopped the grant and made it loan only. He was entitled to the maximum loan and maximum grant. Annoyingly, student finance used to retain half the grant to reduce the loan amount, so it wasn't as good as it sounds. It was clear that we would still need to help out, so as well as paying mobile phone contract, I worked out what it used to cost us to support DC when they were at school and gave as close to that as I could manage each month. I also used to pay onto the sainsbury student meal ticket card, so whatever happened, they could always get food. DC worked during vacations, though not in term time as any spare time was spent in labs, research etc as it was a science subject.

We paid their rent (x 3 DC), and generous amounts of cash for Christmas and birthdays. And a supermarket shop when we visited.

Dd is starting university in October. The student loan offer is very low. Therefore we will pay towards her rent and pay for books
However, we expect her to get a job in the Summer and a part time job when she is at university .

Exactly this ^ plus a huge food shop at the beginning of each term and various bits as required such as kitchenware.

Thanks village

I really struggled as out of my remaining £80 a month I had to pay out lots of travel funds (bus and trains), but Uni books, general spends and I also bought the food shop too sometimes.

My dad was a high earner so I couldn’t have anymore than £230 a month for my bursary allowance. Due to the nature of my course (nursing) I couldn’t get a job either so it was hard going. I had to sell a lot of things on eBay to make up funds etc.

After two years of getting by I eventually took out a loan in my third year as I needed to reduce my financial stresses and worries and I then paid that off over about 4 years once I had qualified.

@Villagewaspbyke that is a really stupid comment! You cannot compare a school age child with a university student and assume parents can maintain them in the same way. School is compulsory, school children don’t have the maturity to meet their own needs and are unable to lawfully work. Going to uni is a choice, uni students can work to fund their own lifestyle and education and should be expected to do so. My opinion (very uncommon on MN) is that parents should not be expected to sub adult DC and certainly not in the same way as they do a child. Also, uni is bloody expensive and many parents will never be in the position to pay their own bills, rent/mortgage, food shopping etc and to that for their adult children. Quite frankly I am surprised those students won their lawsuits.

We paid their rent each year but no more. They got student loans, worked and saved once A levels had finished and then got bar work locally when at uni. They need to show commitment and be financially savvy.