To think the government needs to something quickly to help families financially supporting children at Uni.

[Fl0renc3]

Mortgages are going up( ours will by 300 when we remortgage v soon), energy bills will be going up hugely, ditto food, petrol etc…. Already making all the savings we can.

We have got to start paying our child £500 a month to live on from October on top. It was already going to be a squeeze.Her bills will be rocketing too so who knows if what we were planning to give her will be enough.

We don’t have a money tree and have 2 other children due to start Uni in the next few years. I know the poorest and the richest will be ok re funding for their child at Uni but there is a massive band in the middle who won’t. Whether or not you can go to Uni shouldn’t be decided on parental income( thanks Tories) but those already there and just starting are going to be in dire straits as are the families supporting them.

Average rent for halls out of London is around £6k @LargeLegoHaul - do you think people can live on £3k a year? And buy books, laptops, printing cards, bus tickets, train fares... ? Crazy to say the 'poorest' students are the best off.

grr my post got eaten but to summarise,

peopel at the top end abuse the system and had someone I know parents separate and move money and assets around to get the support, they than got back together after uni.

also had a friends who’s parents were well off not support her and she qualifieed for nothing. She had to get a job to survive.

Everyone gets squeezed somewhere.
When at I worked 20 hours a week around my course and was able to still have time to see friends, go out, study and do sport.

First year was in halls second year and third year rented with friends in a non ‘student luxury apartment’ to keep costs down.

inhet costs pressures are higher now but I don’t think funnelling tax payer money into students is the best place at this moment.

opening up the loan scheme to all would help.

you DC needs to get a job now, hospitality is crying out for workers especially over summer. Yes it costs but being a student is about learning to balance costs and budgeting. People also have to realise that when they leave the home that they cannot and will not have the same quality of life right off the bat.

Being a student is a choice! They may be poor in terms of earning power but presumably they will leave Uni and go o to have extremely good wages so it’s not the life sentence it is for so many who live in the cycle of poverty.

Honestly if your sense of entitlement and illogical pending doom seeps through to your DD then no wonder she is gonna struggle with life!

Have you and your DD considered her studying part-time?

I'm currently studying for a degree with the Open University part-time.

Firstly the OU is a bit cheaper than other universities, and secondly it means that I can study and work part-time. Thirdly it's all online I can study when it suits me around my job. I'm a qualified teacher so tutor 16 hours a week.

And in your DDs case it will mean she can live either at home or somewhere cheap close to paid employment.

I realise this may not work for someone young (I'm in my 40s) but thought it worth mentioning.

For the contribution to be £500 I’m not really sure you are the ‘squeezed middle’. What is the household income?

realistically she has to get a job and should have started that path some time ago. My parents had very little at the point I went to university so had to supplement. I had a Saturday job as soon as I was 16, worked every summer and had a good cushion for university. My loan just about covered accommodation so will have been in a similar position. I had a hard course so didn’t work much term time- did the odd bar shift in our college bar but it was term-time work that did it.

Even if I could fully support my children though university, I think getting a job is an important part of their own independence and learning. Kids at 21 who just have the degree aren’t going to be walking into grad schemes. The degree alone is not enough. When I’ve done grad recruitment I’ve never taken on anyone who hasn’t had a job or very significant volunteering/society roles.

Hotels are desperate for staff. She can live in for 3 months over the summer and earn £5000.

What course is your daughter planning on studying?

They may be poor in terms of earning power but presumably they will leave Uni and go o to have extremely good wages

Sorry, but that wasn't true even when I went to university which was nigh on 25 years ago, and it certainly isn't true now.

We are in the same position, first of our 3 children (close in age) going to uni in October. Assuming he gets the results he expects. Minimum loan due to household income. DS is autistic and getting a job would be difficult for him. He has worked incredibly hard academically and deserves a break over the summer so we haven't expected him to try and work. We have saved through the years using his CTF and he has been given some money from grandparents. So he has considerable savings to help cushion his time at uni. He may get some funding through disabled student grant for things he will need to help him manage uni. We are worried about the increasing cost of living but have tried to mitigate through saving as much as we can.

I went to university, and when I applied the grant system was being fazed out so I had a combination of grant and loan. In the summer I got my A levels results my parents were worried about how they were going to support me as I was not going to get the full grant available due to household income. Then the week before I started university my father died. That meant I got the full grant and loan however strangely enough I did not feel fortunate. So no op people on a full loan are not having an easy time they have low income!

Plenty of students end up in badly paid jobs.

It was the Thatcher government that first introduced loans in 1989, I remember protesting about it at the time. My DD has a job at uni but we still pay her rent - £645 a month in an expensive university city. Because the parental contribution calculation doesn't take into account outgoings the only way we can afford to do this is by hosting homestay students in her room. Obviously this might not be an option if you live rurally. Her job supplements her activities and some travel etc. - I realise I could insist she curtails this and puts some towards her rent, but I don't want her to be completely strapped for cash all the time, it's miserable. I agree the system could do with an overhaul

Exactly. My father refused to pay the shortfall. During the term I worked in the student health centre and during the holidays I worked full time in retail.

I was better off though than a fellow student who was only able to get the minimum grant due to her parents' income. Her parents refused to contribute anything and she had to work long hours in the university kitchens and cleaning services to put herself through the course.

As far as the OP is concerned, she should have been planning ages ago for her daughter to be working to help to fund herself and she needs to get her finger out planning for her other two children. While there are families living in poverty in this country, expecting taxation to provide additional funding to facilitate the studies of students whose parents have a comfortable income shouldn't even be any kind of priority.

The effect of people completely unsuited for degrees being encouraged to do them.

More jobs than ever before. shortages of workers.

OP, have you been to university yourself? If you're earning so little money that you can do better on benefits, then I'm guessing not. So you can see the benefit of her going to university; she will earn more money than her peers and be able to subsidise her own family. So this is a fantastic opportunity for her and your family. You only have to pay £500pm for a few years and she's set up for life.

Your three kids are all going to be in full time education until 18. You and your husband have not earned enough to pay enough taxes to fund their free education, dentistry and healthcare. Other people have paid for YOUR lifestyle of having kids. Wealthy entrepreneurs, business people, companies and other high taxpayers have paid for your family. The free handouts to your family have to stop sometime. Pay the money like the rest of us and go without luxuries for a few years.

Your kids are not too grand to work and they are not the only young people with mental health issues. Care homes are crying out for people.

Some would say your child is immensely entitled to not have got a job immediately exams ended and saved at least more than enough if not sufficient money towards living costs for Uni.

You posted “Maximum maintenance loan is £9706, for the year. Not enough to cover rent in most places.” you didn’t mention living costs, so I asked where £9706 isn’t enough to cover a student let.

Although my previous post wasn’t about living costs, plenty of students live on £3.7K for the academic year. Spread over 10 months that’s £370 per month.

I think £500 a month is a lot if it doesn’t include rent

maybe look at seeng if you could cut back how much you intend giving her

But why does she need £500 a month after all bills?

Surely your dc has been working holiday jobs and weekend saving for this very thing.

They also need to get a job locally during term time to support themselves. It’s ok saying that they are not allowed part time jobs, that may be so at some uni’s but it’s rubbish to believe that people don’t. There are plenty of med students working hospitality, if they can do it then anyone can. Why are so many kids so entitled to think mummy and daddy will pay for everything. They need to get a job, everywhere is crying out for staff.

Yes, which means teenagers are competing against people with actual experience....

She should be working now and also should have been working over the last 2 years.

DS1 is a year younger (just finishing Y12), he worked all of last summer from finishing school. He then worked every weekend at least 1 day and half term and Christmas holiday. The place he was working them shut down until Easter and hasn’t opened up again so from Easter onwards he applied for every job he could. We live rurally as well, it’s an hour to our nearest city but we prioritised driving lessons so he used some of the money from last summer to fund them and we topped it up. However we also spent 3 months taking him to work every day until he passed his test 2 weeks ago despite also both working.

We are in the very fortunate position (at the moment) of being able to top up his money when he gets to Uni but I don’t want him to have the attitude that you get things in life for free. My parents had nothing when I was growing up and I had to work for everything, babysitting at 14, shop work as soon as I was able.

There are not loads of hospitality around here! I have looked.

I agree that the system for calculating how much parents can afford to pay doesn't work properly. I have to pay £400 a month to my son at university but if I had had two children at university at the same time then I would have to pay £800 a month. That's not really means tested then, is it?

Why aren’t you expecting any of your children to work at Uni?

Also, Uni is a choice - you’re not being forced to pay £18k!

Not to mention, I imagine a single teenager costs more than £500 a month to keep - when you factor in utility costs, food, petrol, clothes, activities etc. Can you afford it now?? If so it should t be unaffordable in October

Also I suggest moving house - living rurally is a choice, you won’t need all those bedrooms soon so downsize and lower your bills. The market is booming, strike while the iron’s hot.

But you won’t because you want to live your comfortable MC lifestyle and also have your kids go through Uni not working, all whilst making absolutely no changes whatsoever to any of your lives.