to think that £500 a month is enough for a child at uni

[FunnysInLaJardin]

we will pay his accommodation and his tuition fees will be paid, so this will just be for food and travel etc

The middle income bit is quite an easy category to fall into, and one where people assume you have a large amount of spare cash. The household income to qualify for the minimum maintenance loan of £4.6K is about £62.3k. Its sounds generous, as a stand alone £62k wage is decent, but as a household income, two full time workers on modest incomes would achieve this, especially if one is hourly and averaging 50ish hours a week. A teenager's part time wage, a typical McDonald's at the weekend type job, would also be in the calculation. Suddenly the extra £6-£7k per child per year needed to top up their uni loan is quite a lot to find.

It's not really sudden though. People who have a degree themselves will know that parents are meant to contribute if on a middle income although I appreciate that if you don't you may not know. I think there should be more publicity about it.

I "took that tone" because there are always posters on these threads claiming that they financed their own degrees via part time jobs and didn't receive help from their parents so no one else should need a financial contribution from parents either. You seemed to be in that category as you said your parents gave you nothing. Your parents paid your rent though and you also received a loan which a few years ago would have covered the basics.

Even after agreeing that your parents did contribute and that you had a maintenance loan you felt the need to add that they only paid a £60 a week which is pretty meaningless as we don't know when you went to university - it would be highly unlikely you could get accommodation that cheap today. You also suggested that you supported yourself by having two part time jobs and that young people don't need much sleep which is again not helpful. Maybe you didn't need much sleep to do your degree but it doesn't apply to all. You would probably only have needed to work for extras anyway which was up to you but very different to having to work long hours just to eat and pay rent. Who would want that for their children?

I was getting today’s equivalent of £1000 a month as a grant in 1984. Accommodation had to come out of that but it was tight.

teenager’s part-time jobs are not used in the Student loan calculations - just the supporting parents

My dc's generation are the first in our families to go to uni, so we were all clueless until our neices and nephews started to go. (Old uncles and grandads are still huffing that the kids they aren't going down't pits, or working on't farm, like they did! 🤣 ) We had just assumed until then that the loan covered everything!

we've covered that one

Thank you, that's what we are hoping too. No way would I send him off to uni with no financial support, especially as we can afford it

@NotSorry are you sure about that? It seems to suggest it’s everyone registered as living in the household that counts including parents partner and the child going to uni?

It def

Whoops...it definitely includes partners that live in the household.

I'd pay it weekly though otherwise you risk being asked for more in the last week of the month.

That's way more than he needs! My daughter spends that per term. She feeds herself on under £20 a week and mostly walks or gets the bus. Make sure he knows how to shop for and cook real food so he doesn't blow his budget on ready meals and take aways. £500 is more than I spend to feed my family in a month.

I got a £3k maintenance loan and my parents paid the odd bill and some train tickets home when I was in a tight spot. My rent came out of that and I had about £50 a week left over. I get that with inflation it has to be more than that but I do think eating cold beans out of a mug because you've run out of cash is part of the fun of Uni life and makes you appreciate your hitherto cushy upbringing more!

Hi @BungleandGeorge yes part-time jobs by students are not counted. So it would be mum and dad or parent and partner etc. but not a part-time job by the student while they are at uni. My son is at uni now and has a small part-time job, we don't have to declare it

Pretty hard to spend just 20 pounds a week on food nowadays without being undernourished. Sounds very depressing. I very much doubt your DD is living on 500 pounds a term.

Bag of porridge, bag of frozen berries - breakfast
Jar of coffee
I can make spaghetti bol x 5 portions for about £6 so there's 5 dinners.
Loaf of bread, block of cheese, cucumber and cherry Tom's for lunches
Bunch of bananas
4x baked potatos, butter and 2 tins tuna, mayo.

I reckon you could carefully eat on 20 a week.

No milk
No fruit
very little veg
not great is it?

I thought the milk was implied by the porridge and coffee. Tomatoes and cucumbers are veg. Bananas are fruit. I don’t think the poster was suggesting the same every week - just giving an example.

Sure I missed the banana and frozen berries

its just not enough fruit and veg though is it to be healthy? Of course it’s possible - see 30p Lee. It’s not healthy to eat like that every week.

Well if they were to add on another £5 they could get a fruit and veg box, so I think it still illustrates comparative budgeting pretty well.

A fruit and veg box for £5? With enough fruit and veg in for a week? Bargain.

And the other thing is all the store cupboard stuff that isn’t mentioned

oil to cook the spag Bol in
butter for the sandwiches
milk as mentioned
teabags
whats in the spag bol? Carrots celery onion? Tomato puree? Tinned tomatoes? Is pasta included in the costing?
salt and pepper

there are a lot of assumptions made about what is in the store cupboard, or how this is funded.

Sounds really repetitive, boring and lacking in variety particularly of fruit and veg. It doesn't sound like much food either, particularly for someone young and active.

It can be done though. Needs must, and all.

We would be nowhere near financially capable of sending dc 500pcm for food and fun. It's half our families entire food and fun budget, and they are one of four of us.