DD's uni costs

[WarriorWalrus]

DD1 is 17, 18 at the start of August. DH and I can't agree on what costs we should be covering while she is at uni and what she should budget for herself.
Due to our income DD only qualifies for the most basic maintenance loan. We have savings for her, so it won't be out of our monthly income (though I intend to keep putting money into her savings while she is at uni). Her grandparents have offered to pay for her accommodation (£350 a week).
So far we haven't figure out how much her monthly allowance from us will be, but we disagree on what this should cover. DH thinks the amount we set should cover everything, food, clothes, socialising, club fees, holidays etc.
I think food, socialising and day to day clothes sure, but she plans to join one of the sports teams so I think we should pay for the initial registration cost and kit costs, allow her to use money from the savings for travel, she currently gets private coaching in her sport, I think we should pay for this to continue at uni (I know she wants it to) and step in with extra money for more expensive clothes for events or such.
We don't want her to and she doesn't intend to get a job (Uni, Socialising, Sport and extra work to help future career should take up most of her time). But we do want to teach her to budget.
AIBU to think the additional things should be covered by us, anyone with Uni aged kids got a rough idea of how much she will need monthly?

@FarmGirl78
It's crazy isn't it that ppl cannot fathom how someone could possibly survive on £125pw after their bills, that's more than enough and if the DD wants more then she can earn it.

It depends what you need to buy with the £125 a week in London. Most people working do spend more than that and many students in London definitely do. The ones living at home a ££££ in as no rent to pay at all. They just save a chunk of the loan.

The big issue here is the grandparents over indulging and spending £350 a week on her accommodation - that’s wholly unnecessary. More money than sense. A more sensible route would be cheaper accommodation and more spending money. Unfortunately the op and the grandparents never discussed it. So the grandparents have facilitated over indulgence. It’s a bit late for the op to ask dd to be financially prudent. The grandparents agreeing to profligacy have scupppered that.

I can never fathom why posters cannot work out the cost of Dc going to uni. It’s not always necessary and when you have a teen, surely you get yourself clued up on costs? It’s not “back in my day” - it’s now. Plus you don’t agree to London if you cannot afford it! It’s not difficult to check costs of halls and flats.

In some places the children of those on benefits are the best off as they get a massive full maintenance loan

This seems to be a middle-class myth that's springing up and it's absolute nonsense. It's well known that student loans have not kept up with costs and that even the full loan isn't enough. Students from poor backgrounds face serious problems that better-off kids will never have to contend with - e.g. if their parents are on benefits, having their student child back home in the holidays places a massive strain on a household income that reduced when they left school.

This article gives an example of a student on the full maintenance loan, who has a job, and has just £25 a week left after paying essentials. He sends some of that home to his mother, who has lost her job as a dinner lady. That's what I call 'struggling', not some kid who has the bank of mum and dad to resort to when things get a bit tight.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/student-finance-maintenance-loans-inflation/'

Sorry, incorrect link. It's here:

I just gave my kids additional card holder on my credit card and they put they need to on there, sometimes that’s a weekly shop Asda, 480 quit and sometimes it’s a bubble tea when they come out of a difficult class. They don’t take the piss. And it’s worked out well.

£45 that should say. They are also on my Uber account which is particularly helpful because it means I know they never get stranded anywhere.

I wouldn't call having 25 pounds left after paying for food, accommmodation and all bills particularly struggling. The main problem for that student is he's actually giving some or all of the 25 pounds to his parents.

I wouldn't call having 25 pounds left after paying for food, accommmodation and all bills particularly struggling

Its absurd to say that he’s not struggling on £25 a week. It’s clear from the article that that money is for clothing, most likely for food as well (it’s ambiguous on that but that’s how I would read it), and certainly for any unexpected extras. Forget any kind

of social life. He is experiencing severe poverty and it needs bearing in mind that there are many like him. There are now food banks for students in many universities. I used to teach in one that had a high proportion of first-generation university-goers. Some had so little, and could barely afford the fares to and from home. They all worked, often to the detriment of their studies.

I find it pretty obscene the way some wealthy parents treat university as some kind of posh playground for their kids when others can barely afford even the most basic existence there.

I think DC on full maintenance and generous bursaries are better off than those who get a lower maintenance loan but whose parents don’t or won’t make up the difference. If Dc on full maintenance go somewhere cheap to live, they are quids in. The better off always will be but so many parents do not pay, or cannot pay, what they should. These are the students who frequently need to work. Those getting full maintenance and a generous bursary are often just fine. They can work if they wish and get even more money.

It isn't clear to me that the £25 is for food etc at all. The full maintenance is nearly £10,000 now and a lot of the student accommodation in Birmingham (where the student is) is less around £6,000 which would include utility bills and wifi. If he also has a job that could mean around £6,000 left for food and anything else i.e. £115 a week so I would imagine food and quite a lot of things are being counted as “essential” if he only has £25 left.

I'm not suggesting that people on full loans are rich but they're a lot better off than the students on pretty much minimum loans whose parents don't contribute anything.

I find it pretty obscene the way some wealthy parents treat university as some kind of posh playground for their kids when others can barely afford even the most basic existence there

a bit like the real world then ?
I remember listening to my boss and one of the posh girls at work talking about what their weekend been like and how refreshed they felt. I’d been working in a bar, was knackered, barely eaten and smelt of fags, already for the week ahead.

Well, @WomblingTree86, it’s fabulous that you’ve worked that student’s finances for him and decided that he’s not badly off at all. I’m sure you have a much more intimate knowledge of his personal finances than he does.

In some places the children of those on benefits are the best off as they get a massive full maintenance loan
🤣🤣🤣
Here in Scotland the full loan is £7k, so £700pm less halls leaves £100pm max to eat, clothe, books , aye that's the hi life compared to the kids here getting everything paid by mummy and daddy plus £150pw pocket money. Many students HAVE to work even with a full loan as their parents cannot contribute.

You, along with everything else, have hired a nutritionist! Sorry but that gave me the best laugh I've had in a long time.

Why would I need an "intimate knowledge of his finances"? Information on what students on full loans receive is freely available as is the average cost of accommodation and other bills. Obviously, there may be something unusual about his outgoings compared with other students but if that is the case, he is not representative of students on full loans so I don't know why he'd be used as an example.

My daughters nutritionalist was absolutely gutted to find out that she washed the beautifully planned menu with 6 pints

You forgot the £2,000 bursary.

@WomblingTree86 , seriously, you’ve come on a thread about whether £500 a month is enough and claim that a working-class student on £25 a week is perfectly fine? It’s like Iain Duncan-Smith pretending he could live on benefits perfectly easily. Do you live on £25 per week after bills? Would you expect your kids to?

No student loan is designed to allow a student to send money home to a parent! There are hardship funds for students but the loan is for them, not to help out a parent. Plus there are also bursaries. Often articles are only half the truth and do not explore the exact situation. A sensational headline does not explain the exact position.

My daughter gets basic maintenance loan and we cover the difference. Will be similar in y2 when in a shared house.
she is doing a healthcare degree so also qualifies for a £5000 p/a bursary which she is expected to use to cover food socialising etc.
in terms of sports club membership, this was a one off cost that we covered (wasn’t expensive and much less that we paid for her club membership at home)
in y1 she didn’t have a job whilst at uni but did work during holidays. She will be trying to find something when she goes back in September.
in the main she has stuck to this although there have been times when we have had to supplement a bit eg pay for a bigger shop to restock basics.

They are not on 25 pounds a week though are they?! They get nearly 10,000 Loan which is about 190 pounds a week and also apparently have a job . Even if that was only 4 hours a week that would be an extra 40 pounds. They live in birminghan which is not a particularly expensive city for accommodation.

• should have said maintenance loan goes towards accomodation

No tuition fees though. Imagine graduating with £30k less debt than students this side of the border.

They only get the full loan if they come from a low earning income household ( any household earning less than £58,000 approx a year. If you are earning over that threshold they get only about £3600 a year. I don’t know where you are but where I live the weekly cost for student accommodation ranges from £140 to £300 a week and it is not that they can freely choose a cheaper accomodation, there is a very very high demand for any places, whether they are £150 or £200 a week.

In Birmingham it would be at the lower end of your range for university halls and nowhere near 300 a week. That includes all utilities and wifi and for 41 weeks rather than the year. Total cost would be around 6000 so leaves four thousand a year for food and other things. There are also jobs.