To think student loans based on household income are unreasonable

[Starsinyoureyes13]

My daughter will only be 17 when she starts uni next year, im hoping she gets into the halls of residence as then she will have her own room as currently she shares a room with her very messy and loud sister. Right now I'm currently the main earner in my home, I earn a little over 25k to support 4 of us, My partners business is going down the tubes and may have to call it a day as anything he earns is being put into the company. So come next year my daughter will get about £600 in bursary and 6100 in a loan, she won't be able to get a bar job as she is under 18 and any work she does will pay bare minimum due to her age, so looks like I'll have to fund her until she's 18 which won't be until next January. How do other parents cope with their kids at uni do you part fund them?
Its all confusing
Though still see it as unreasonable that household income dictates who gets what

She could do retail/waitressing?

Plenty on here will part fund. The people who I know, that can't, their children work in retail and more recently, weekend warehousing. I agree that there's a middle section who don't get the funding that they really need and it cuts down on their choices.

There are other jobs she could do apart from bar work.

She can get a job now and save. If your husband's business is failing - he'll be getting a job ?

Not getting into the 'ins and outs' of how the loans are worked out (which has been done to death on Mumsnet) but surely your DD can get a different sort of part time job ... coffee shop or retail, doesn't have to be a bar job?

What's the alternative?
If the maintenance loan wasn't based on household income, you'd be happy with, say, Lady Louise Windsor (fresher at St.Andrews) getting the same loan as your daughter?
It doesn't get much fairer than being based on household income, for all its faults!

She needs to apply to McDonalds/Aldi or Lidl. Much fairer wage policies than most.

Hi op, if your income falls significantly due to your husband’s job, then you will be able to inform the finance department & on £25k your daughter may well get a full loan. Good luck, it isn’t easy.

I'd give student support at the uni a call and make an appointment to talk about options for financing. There's various hardship grants and bursaries available outside of student loans which she may be entitled to? Some jobs are better than others, for example McDonald's will give her a decent wage, train her quickly to progress in her job role and will give her time off for uni and study. I know they might even help fund certain things so it's worth a look about to see where is worth applying for.

She could even train as a lifeguard from the age of 16 which my son did the week after he turned 16. This part time work has funded 6 months in Central America in a gap year, a month in Thailand this past Summer and his time at uni too (going into second year).

She doesn't need to work in a bar. There are other jobs. If things are that tight perhaps she should work now or have a gap year and work to build up savings before she goes.

Also agree re: other part time jobs. I was in the university town where my child studies recently and every shop window had an ad in.

This. There are also a large number of grants and bursaries both from the Uni and from providers in specific subject areas. She needs to apply for some of those.

There’s plenty of other jobs than bar work and places like Boots, macdonalds and Aldi pay more than minimum wage for under 18’s. She can certainly work and make contributions to her living costs

Are you in England? I’m just wondering about the level of the loan, an income of under £30k is ‘almost’ the maximum loan value (around £9k). I’m guessing your actual household income is over £30k but your husband isn’t actually earning anything due to the business situation?

Rough guide to the loan amount for various income brackets here;

www.savethestudent.org/student-finance/maintenance-loans.html#amount

Really rubbish that your partners business is doing so badly though, you have my sympathies.

The alternative is more govt funding, we already have the moist expensive tuition fees in Europe, probably the world (outside of USA)

We've skills shortages in health, science etc yet do not support these students, giving them the same as a media studies student.

We need a more targeted approach or we just carrying on allowing more and more immigration and/or off shoring.

I’ve had jobs since I was 14 and I never worked in a bar…there are several Options out there for her. Surely any pay is better than nothing.

SeasonFinale

“She doesn't need to work in a bar. There are other jobs. If things are that tight perhaps she should work now or have a gap year and work to build up savings before she goes.“

at her age, excellent suggestion. As well as building up a cushion she’ll gain very valuable life skills that will help her greatly when she leaves home.

I agree they are unfair. They don’t take into account anything but income. DDs friends loan didn’t even cover accommodation she didn’t get much laid because in the last financial year, which they use, she had a fairly well paid job. However? She has had to reduce her hours due to ill health and has another disabled dd.

student finance weren’t interest that her circumstances had changed hugely. The dd is really struggling to make uni work and doing enough hours to support herself.

My dd was in this position. She got retail work over the summer before university and saved every penny to take with her so she had a chunk to start her off. There are other jobs than bar work! Admittedly it is very annoying that being under 18 their wage is so much less than others doing the same role though.

I'm not.sure if it used to be worse - it felt like it in 1983 when we filled in my grant application only to find that mortgage was listed as an outgoing but council rent wasn't. As a result we had (on paper, as renters) low outgoings and so I didn't get a full grant - or even part of a grant - it was hard then with no student load as an alternative. The richer kids I grew up with often got full grants as their parents mortgages were huge. Three years later I owed Barclays a huge debt at phenomenal interest rates that had to be paid back ASAP and not when my salary reached a certain threshold.

As others have said she can work in McDonald's or similar, my own teen manages a McDonald's job with full time college and intends to transfer to wherever they end up at uni and keep both going.

Does your husband need to bite the bullet, wrap up his business and get paid employment elsewhere to help support the family?

If it's really unmanageable could your daughter do a cheaper degree with the OU and get a full time job at the same time?

You've failed to acknowledge that in some of those European countries there are no govt loans/bursaries/scholarships/maintenance loans/awards.
The tuition may cost less, but you have to find it, then you have to pay your child's rent and accomodation.

(Apologies for hijack OP, but the rose-tinted bollocks about "abroad" is annoying, especially when untrue and cherry-picked)

NB, what on earth does immigration have to do with it?

I think it’s unfair that other outgoings aren’t taken into account. DS gets the minimum loan due to our income (this loan doesn’t even pay for his accommodation, let alone food) so the expectation is we top up £4/5000 each year. This was ‘fine’ the last two years but this year, DD is also at uni so she also gets the minimum amount and we are also expected to top this up. They will both work to earn money, but it’s still very tight. Especially with everything that’s going on at the moment.

It amuses me on here sometimes when you read about parents who say they didn’t give their child a bean and they lived purely off their loan-as if they were just better at budgeting. It then it transpires that they got the maximum loan which is double the amount of money!

If your daughter is only 17, I would encourage a year out for her to work and save. It won’t be much fun if she’s living with people who are all 18 going to the pub/clubs and she’s too young to go, as well!

Yes many parents do have to provide some financial support and have to save for uni.

Im assuming you're in Scotland and your DD at younger end of school year if she's going to Uni at 17?
I'm in Scotland and 16 year olds round here work in coffee shops and McDonalds so she could get a job now and start saving.
I also know a couple of 17 year olds working in retail.
My DD1 worked full time waitressing in a coffee shop last summer before going to uni and earned £2k over the summer.

My dd worked in a chip shop as soon as her GCSEs were over until the Easter before her A levels. She works in a shop now she is at university. Most students work.

Some universities are cheaper to live at than others. She will get her own room whether she is in halls or not. Students don't share rooms. That's an American thing.