Twins - Uni Costs

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DH and I have two children, twins. They are 18, moving to uni this week.
We are in a position to put them through uni loan free (we live in the north, so our living coats are very low). DS is going to uni in the north, his accommodation works out at £7440 (£186pw) for the year. DD is going to uni in London, her accommodation is £10,400 (£260pw) for the year. They are both staying in accommodation that is sort of middle of the road price wise at their unis. DD found it impossible to get anywhere cheaper as the cheaper ones go very quickly and are often reserved for low income students. DS could have but wanted somewhere nicer/better location.
Both have worked jobs all summer (and since they were 16 infact) so have some savings, DD did do a couple of holidays though so lacking a little on the savings front. DD has a job lined up starting next week, similar to her current job. 14 hours a week (2x7 hour shifts) at £11.50 an hour, so will have her own money. DS is doing a science degree so is waiting to get a feel for the workload before deciding to get a job or not.
To cover day to day living costs we were going to deduct their accommodation costs from the maximum loan (London weighted for DD). So £2622 for DD, £2538. Basically £290 over 9 months. This seems like a lot!!
DD will be making over £500 a month working and DS has thousands in savings!! I don't want to be funding drinking or such, I feel like they can pay for that themselves. I was thinking instead we'd give maybe £30/40 a week, which should be enough for shopping. They are both walking distance from their campus so not worried about transport costs. DD is walking distance from work too.
DH thinks this is cruel, max loan students in their accommodation will have more so we should even the playing field, not punish them for working/saving.

AIBU to think students don't need £300 a month to live on? Is DH right?

Yes loan free. There is no need for them to take it and with being paid off over 40 years for this cohort, it will effectively be a graduate tax. With interest added etc. I don't see the need for them to take it.
My parents passed, we sold their house so have enough for a deposit for each kid and to find them through uni. We could give them more, they could not have jobs.
But jobs look great on CVs and DD would work either way she likes earning her own money, has done for as long as I can remember. She was babysitting at 13 and working from 16.

No as the loan is weighted for London due to the higher living expenses. If we are working on that model we will do the same.
DS is going to uni in a comparatively extremely cheap city.

That’s fair enough.

I would just treat them as if they’d taken the loans, in that case.
Give them exactly what they’d have been left with after paying tuition and accommodation costs.
The fact that they’re different isn’t really relevant.

But at the end of the day studying in London and not working during the holidays are choices that your DD has made and not things that have been forced upon her, so it is more unfair on your DS to give him thousands of pounds less than his sister simply because he has made more sensible financial decisions.

My mum used to give me £120 a month to live on back in 2015. So I reckon £200 a month should be enough. I worked in the summer to top this up and did adhoc work during term time.

@User183642

I wouldn't say DD has made poor financial decisions.
She is studying in London as the career she wants is largely London centric. She wanted the networking, internship, insight week etc.
Opportunities that come with London. Not to mention she is a city girl and would go mad at a uni in a small city/rural.

On the flip, DS is doing a degree that will lead to jobs which aren't as London centric and he hates London with a passion.

I'm not going to punish DD for picking a uni that was better suited to her. I'd hate to have made DD feel like she had to pick a uni she wouldn't be happy at, in the same way I wouldn't force DS to study in London.

AIBU to think students don't need £300 a month to live on? Is DH right?

Honestly?

£300 a month. That's £66.6 per week (assuming 4.5weeks a month).

That's £30 for food (they won't have lunches all paid for). Then what? Another £30 for books and clothes. That's not much. And that's not considering that in order to make friends a certain amount of socialising is going to be needed.

Break it down.

Then consider reasonableness.

It's doable but it will make their time at uni, a lot harder. Perhaps unnecessarily so if you have the means to help more.

They have jobs/savings no need to cover socialising.
Books and clothes we can deal with separately (they can just message and say hey I need some new jeans/this book and we will transfer the amount).

Not that it matters I should say, the consensus here is that they need more than £30/40 a week. We will do £300 a month and I think my husbands parents plans to give them £50 a month.

You should really give them the loan amount and let them budget it themselves not beg for more if they need things the loan should cover. Otherwise they'll be worse off than a student from a low income family who would be eligible for a full loan.

I agree with your husband that money earned by them is extra/a bonus/savings, not a saving for you to give them less. There will hardly be any incentive to work if the wages effectively go straight into mum's pocket!

This doesn’t work though. If we did this for DS, after accomm and tuition he would be left with £47 pw term time only, which isn’t enough for food, books/stationery, dentist, travel, and a little bit of social life etc. Plus doesn’t account for the uni holidays: I don’t think he could manage on just loans, they really do need extra help over and above these amounts from home.
OP you say you’re covering all additional clothing / expenses - do you think DH is trying to shift them to budgeting for themselves with a larger amount (which prob works a
out the same spend!)

This.

Hmm my post was meant to quote the PP saying just give them the amount of the whole loan

Well as a adult this was my rough budget ... years ago..., my food shop cost me £80 a week, toiletries £15 a week, clothes about £40 a month, Entertainment £50 a month ( whether going out or paying for things such as netflix ) phone £30 a month

Thats £500 a month for just what i call necessities.

Give them the amount of the full loan! (Or if you don't want to give them that much, then let them take out student loans and just top them up to the full amount).

It's literally the amount that the government has calculated as the minimum required to live at a decent standard. It is what all of the peers will have. Why do you want to make your young adult children come begging to you every time they need books or jeans?

They need the full loan amount in their hands, either by you (generously) giving the full amount, or by them taking out the loan and you topping them up to that amount, as per the required parental contribution.

This sounds awful - they're adults, they need to learn to budget and manage money themselves. They shouldn't be asking you for a handout each time they want a new outfit or need a book

Mine gets the welsh loan and we still
top up £300 a month.

Our DS's rent comes to around £6k per year(!) in Halls so we pay that and he uses the £4k minimum loan amount for food, travel, gym etc. He's massively antisocial so at least doesn't have beer costs!

That takes it up to the max loan amount, which I think is fair. If he wants to get a job he could live a less frugal lifestyle, but that's up to him.

My friends and I all give £400 per month which works out the same as if DS had got the maximum loan.

This covers everything - food, gym, travel, going out, the odd t-shirt, etc. He's not had to buy a book yet, everything is online these days!

I have also twins, they are in their second year at uni. One in London with a well paying pt job and one at a much cheaper uni but with fewer pt working opportunities (rural). We make up the full loan amount for both. The one in London saved money in halls in her first year to be able to subsidise her second year accommodation. The other has very cheap housing this year but halls were more expensive last year. It evens out over time.

Find put what their local supermarket is and give them a £200 voucher each month for their food, and tell them to send you amazon links for any books/supplies they need for their courses. Then you are paying for their studies and to house and feed them, and say their own earnings are for beer/fun money?

@TheCrowFromBelow if you meant my post by "the loan amount" I meant the full amount a low income student would get (or the minimum loan + the required parental top up which I think amounts to the same).

My son is off to uni (not london) this week. His maintenance loan should cover most of his accommodation and our top up will cover the balance of the rent and his living costs. Split over 12 months we'll be giving him £445 a month or possibly splitting it over 10 months as we do expect him to get a summer job when he's home in July and August. That is the minimum recommended! (If he wants more yes he can get a PT job. )

When I’ve interviewed recent graduates their experience in retail / bars makes for good examples of dealing with some tricky situations and customers. I agree that if they can work without it impacting studies it can be useful.

I agree with giving them the equivalent of the full loan and that parents of students who take out the maintenance loan should make up the difference between what they get and the full loan, but I would then expect the young person to pay for their accommodation out of that money. As the OP is paying for the accommodation, I wouldn't expect them to give £9k+ on top, but they should give the student the difference between the accommodation cost and the full loan.

I’ve been involved in graduate recruitment and part time work is viewed very positively. Working in retail or hospitality can absolutely provide transferable skills and can demonstrate the ability to work as part of a team, communication and timekeeping skills. In my own graduate interviews I was asked lots of questions about my part time work during university. I’m fact I was probably asked more questions on this than I was about my degree!