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.

I understand you’re worried but the highly dramatic, defeatist, sarcastic and frankly pretty chippy tone you’re taking isn’t helping your cause at all.

Hopefully your younger two will plan ahead and start working and saving up now.

Yes but I am of the opinion and I realise this is only an opinion that this is the plan as to how they’re going to fix everything it’s all going to go up in cost therefore more VAT, more corporation tax, less people qualifying for help etc but they don’t plan to increase the thresholds.

inflation will hit 13%, people would’ve had 5% pay rise is which then pushes them over the threshold for just about everything on the Tories will tell you aren’t you lucky you’re getting paid more !

It’s a good point OP. DD has graduated, but during her 3rd year we paid £7,000 for her rent. Although we have a reasonable income, we simply couldn’t do that now with ever increasing mortgage and bills. yet DD would still only be entitled to the minimum student loan.

Thousands of students are from families in similar positions.

Like a PP said is it an option to defer her place for a year and get a job to save up as big a sum as possible until she starts? At least that's not working and studying at the same time.

Most people I know at Uni had jobs, it’s ridiculous to say yours can’t.

I would seriously consider deferring university for at least a year to work on her mental health if it's poor enough to stop her getting a part-time job. I can't see how she will cope with an intensive course and living away from home if that is the case.

Which uni has she chosen?
I’ve not had to look hard - literally just chose Hull as a friend’s daughter loved it there and chose it because it was relatively cheap.
£89 a week - £4700 a year, bills all in.
hulluniversityaccommodation.co.uk/property/340-beverley-road-2/

So that’s easily covered by the maintenance loan she gets on your £80K ish household income.

Which means she absolutely does not need a full £500 a month more for food and socials. Sorted.

Just seen you’re quite rural. Some holiday parks offer accommodation with the job. Having a part time job may even help with MH issues and give some balance to her life( all work and no play)
I did a summer seasonal job at a safari park in the leisure dept. It was easy work, met lots of people and best of all got to see the animals regularly.

'Students are amongst the poorest in society' - what is your source for that?

My DS is at a very unglamorous ex-Poly Uni - the students seem to have a very nice standard of living - the ski trip (2 per year) is sold out within 10 minutes, expensive Bars are packed out every night, constant UberEats deliveries etc weekends away etc etc ... yes, most students are subsidising their social lives with part time jobs and no doubt a few are really struggling - but not all by any means.

Some courses are intensive and in uni every day plus study time and work placements. I realise some are a lot less hours and associated travelling etc but I don’t think people can assume it’s possible to work multiple jobs and study. Can students still get bank loans? Does she have a child trust fund somewhere? Or are their any charitable funds she could apply for?

It really isn’t as easy as you think to work whilst studying. My eldest DC is doing this and working hard whilst studying but she is studying a more practical topic and needs to build connections in the industry. She regularly misses out on good opportunities with her uni due to having to be at work. This is before clashes with her lecture timetable and changes made by the uni. Her work has accommodated this and changed her hours once but she cannot do this for each change and has to miss workshops occasionally. She also has a lot of group projects and they all find it very different to arrange times to meet up to work as they all have different working hours. Several have more than one job.
It is really not as easy as people are making out.

difficult not different

And why could she not work in the holidays to earn money towards this?

My sons went to local universities, lived at home and worked part time. I don’t see what the issue is.

“She was advised that her course is intensive and working probably not advisable.”

^Seriously? Because that is a weak excuse. When I was at uni practically everyone worked part time, either weekends or evenings and all worked throughout the summer holidays

I agree student loans shouldn’t be dependent on parental income but you lost me after that.

I chose a local uni - travelled an hour each way & was in 5 days a week. I worked 2-3 12hr shifts every week and on the holidays worked full time and then some. My friend did medicine and worked in a hospital kitchen. Nobody is going to hand money or solutions to you. But you’re setting your daughter up to expect it & feel hard done by when it doesn’t come.

I agree. I dont like the idea that an 18 year olds loan is based on their parents earnings, not the own 18 year olds ability to pay it back.

I d quite like to do a degree but tge amount i can borrow is based on my spouses salary - forcing me to be dependent on a man - something MN isnt in to.

Excuse after excuse. How will these kids cope in the real world? Maybe uni isn’t for them.
Everyone works in the school holidays and at Uni, apart from the very well off and the work shy.

I don't agree I'm afraid. My DD worked throughout uni. All her housemates did too. The housemates who were on the full student loan were the worst off - once rent, bills and cost of living was taken into account they were the least well off and had to get jobs straightaway. They did a lot of hours doing cleaning, in care homes, delivering the post, bar work. They did a lot of hours and studied too. Quite a few had been supporting themselves since they were 16 and should only be admired for their hard work and commitment. Your DD had to do that?

Some of DDs friends gave some of their loans to parents who were on UC and they struggled to get a guarantor for rental agreements.

You still think your DD and your family have it worst? Get real. My DD had her eyes opened about privilege at uni - an excellent life lesson.

Many don’t actually end up paying their loan back in full (some not at all) as they end up not earning enough. The threshold for auto repayments beginning is currently £27,295 a year, £2,274 a month or £524 a week in the UK. It was MUCH lower than that when I graduated (£10,000).

After 30 yrs it gets cancelled so if you never earn above the threshold you won’t pay it back at all. So this “saddled with debt” line people trot out isn’t as clear cut as one might think.

Uni kids loans are not based on parental incomes. Because they are over 18 they are (or were when my daughter applièd) judged to be adults and assumed to be independent. That's why the loans exist and there are grants available for those on low incomes. The easiest way for you to support your daughter would be for her to choose a course at a uni close to home so she could lodge with you and encourage her to be independent by getting a part time job to fund her social life. At the moment

,while I admire your desire to provide her with the ultimate "uni experience" I'm afraid it's fast becoming unaffordable for most of us ,especially those of us with more than one child.

No because people at uni (they are not children) can support themselves with jobs. You don't have to live in halls, you can private rent with others. You can work at uni, they have employment agencies within the uni.

I'm baffled by all the people on this thread who think student finance shouldn't be decided on parental income. Baffled. The ONLY way this would work is if all parents were somehow banned from giving their kids money while at uni.

Otherwise you will absolutely entrench the privilege of students from wealthy backgrounds, and make the struggle even harder for kids from less advantaged backgrounds. As pp have said, the full loan doesn't somehow give you the ability to lay back and focus all your attention on your course. It's not enough, especially in London. Those students will be working part time, possibly living at home, possibly caring for younger family members so parents can work two or more jobs, quite possibly contributing to the family budget as they did when they were in sixth form.

Middle class people (of whom I am one) are blithely ignorant of the enormous advantage their children have accrued before they even start school, and the degree to which that advantage is embedded by the time they hit university. Universities are trying hard to unpick some of that advantage (with limited success, it has to be said) so that post-university outcomes are based on merit, not background. Your kid might have it tough but she really really doesn't have it tougher than most kids receiving the full loan. And pretending that they are starting on the same level and need the same help is just wrong.

I just discovered this today and agree that this is unfair

I did medicine at uni, courses don't come much more intensive than that. I still worked 18 hours a week as a care assistant to find my course.

I worked 60 hours a week during the holidays, because medical students don't get as long a holiday as others so I needed the hours.

It's possible to fund your own way through uni, no matter how intense your course is. It just depends how much you want it.

It's a good life lesson. Nothing should be handed to you on a plate, you have to work for everything. Sadly, it's not a lesson that gets taught very often now if the students I see are much to go by.

It might well be the making of your DD!