I think an 18 year old is an adult -AIBU?

[Drdoomish]

They can get married
They can live under their own steam away from parents
They can take out loans and get into exceptional debt
They can fight and die for our country
They can become an MP or councillor
They can legally get pissed in a pub
They can get their own tattoo
They can sit on a jury
They can leave education
And do all the things that adults can do...

So why, WHY, do the government use a parents income to decide how much living cost loan they will lend to an 18-24 university student?

YABU - An 18 yr old uni student is still a dependent
YANBU - An 18 yr old uni student is an adult in their own right.

She must have been supporting him financially during that time then.

If he had been financially independent for the last 3 years he could have sent in payslips, benefit statements etc to prove this he would have been classed as an independent student.

https://www.ucas.com/finance/student-finance-england/finance-independent-students

I think the government fails to understand that there are many young people who don’t have a traditional family to support them, in care , estranged, abused for whom the funding model excludes from education

My parents earned too much for my sister to get a grant. She lived ofcsmash forca year. Just because parents have cash it doesn't guarantee they will pay the kids a penny. Dad was dilusion about how much money my sister could live on. My mum told everyone she was working to support her dd through uni but never paid one penny out.

The threshold for getting the full loans a family income of 26k so yeah pretty low

Excellent post op. I agree with you.

YANBU
Boils my piss this one. Helping our dd through uni is crippling us.

Even if it doesn't cover everything, it will cover/pay towards something, and thus will be a help to your child. Not everyone can save loads, or even anything at all, but saving something is a good idea. 😬

It's means tested. Just let that sink in for a minute.

Totally agree OP. Student accommodation at some universities is now higher than maximum loan.

I've been through this myself both as a student and for my child, what makes you assume I don't know how it works? My statement stands.

You will have paid it all back by next year? Ow, how will you not be dealing with them?

Your daughter’s Cambridge is worth it but most degrees are a scam to hide youth unemployment. The expansion has done what Tony Blair intended, end the graduate wage premium and therefore end the advantage of the class that had degrees.

It is a bonkers system. I’m a single parent with one at uni and one planning it soon. How I will cope financially when they are both there is anyone’s guess. Luckily I like beans on toast.

DD has started earning above the threshold and got a sign-on bonus in her first month. SFE has calculated her loan repayment on this as her salary. They will continue to take double the amount for the next few months before rectifying but won’t refund it. She is earning well but paying high rent in London. How can the system not tell the difference between salary and one -off bonus?

Also k ow divorced couples where DF is a millionaire but child gets full loan as mum’s income is the only one taken into account. Know of self employed parents with canny accountants meaning they get full loan. It’s so unfair.

The student loan system shockingly poor. When DS started uni we were more than happy and able to help him financially. He wasn't capable of having a part time job as well as study. I really, really felt for student whose parents weren't willing or able to help their adult children.

I think things have got even worse in the past few years with the cost of living going up, the cost of student accommodation going through the roof. There are so many parents in FB groups wondering who their adult child is going to survive on the maximum loan as they are unable to contribute financially.

It also seems unfair that my DC with their minimum loan amounts will have smaller outstanding loans than someone who took the maximum loan, but I guess life is unfair.

DD1 has to repay as salary above £26k for 30 years but for those starting this September they start to repay around £21k for 40yrs.
DD2 has gone down the apprenticeship route now and I’m very glad. Earning and learning is the future.

I really feel for those kids whose parents should be making a contribution but don’t, either because they can’t afford to or because they choose not to. The parental income thresholds are far too low which is extremely unfair for some families. And I think those who could help but don’t are a disgrace. Many of these parents refuse to declare themselves estranged so their dc can benefit from higher loans which is abhorrent. There should be more help for families on low incomes and those young people with no family help.

That being said, those on middle incomes have all known about this for a long time and had 18 years to save. I can’t understand why this is such a shock when the information has been available for years. While uni students are technically adults I think that most parents agree that supporting student children is a necessary part of parenting. I don’t know anyone who would expect a child attending uni to support themselves because they are an adult at 18.

It is really frustrating, I’ve been independent since the age of 17, before that I spent a year in the care system. Even that wasn’t enough for SFE so I could only claim the minimum loan and no grant (some bits were still a grant in 2008).

@SchoolQuestionnaire DH and I didn’t go to uni and were not familiar with the system regarding finance. When DD1 was 16 and heading in that direction, a colleague advised me and we saved like mad. It didn’t occur to me that loans would not be enough. Why would it?

When ds was a young teen and heading in that direction and I had heard there were loans available I didnt just assume it would be enough to cover every option and expense. Why would it?

18 is an adult and capable of supporting themselves and being independent if they choose to. If they don't want to support themselves and head to further education they remain dependent and of course the loans should be means tested. I do not agree the government should use its magic money tree and pick up even more cost for every student.

I have sympathy for young people whose parents refuse, make lifestyle choices that mean they can't afford to support their dc, or don't plan for their childrens education. But less so for the parents who have/had the means.

That being said, those on middle incomes have all known about this for a long time and had 18 years to save. I can’t understand why this is such a shock when the information has been available for years.

For many years we were on a much lower income and unable to save for anything, let alone something so far in the future. The current cost of living means many people won't be able to save for university. I'm just very relieved we are able to financially support DD without needing savings, and that we don't have two studying simultaneously.

What is the moral of this story? Plan to have paid off your mortgage by the time your children start university, don't have children too close together so your are not supporting too many adult children, and save for university from when they are born? Probably, but real life doesn't work quite like that.

No, if you marry, your partner’s income counts instead.

Because most students will never pay the full loans off so reducing the amount they can borrow and effectively forcing parents to pay part of the cost up front reduces the amount that will have to be written off at the taxpayer's expense later on.

I will have what paid back exactly? I had a grant, not a loan and there was no SFE or student loans in my day. I made that clear at the start of my post.

Of course we are dealing them - for DD3, who is still in the system for the next year. They are dreadful and nearly left her penniless on her year abroad last year with their shenanigans. They kept chasing us for information we had already uploaded to them and losing and deleting it again every time we sent it all again. We got different answers every single time we phoned them, which was many, many times. Each of those many calls took around 2 hours to be answered by a person.

DD1 has a student loan that she is paying back now. She graduated from Warwick in 2017. By all calculations her loan is unlikely ever to be completely paid off in her working lifetime. Same will apply to DD3 I am sure.

The great majority of student loans will never be fully paid back, including those of my DDs. As parents though, our dealings with SFE end after the coming academic year after the shit they have put us all through year after year I really can't wait. I'm just sorry that my DDs will have to continue dealing with them for decades to come.

Dreadful system, and SFE have been a nightmare to deal with for all of those years. It has never been straightforward for us.