To ask what your provision is for your DC uni?

[Bluffyslummers]

I see it a lot on here in the debates of can I afford another child, especially after 2 children.

No one of course knows if their child will go to university or what university tuition or funding will look like, but if your saving for your children later in life, what does that look like?

for instance for us, we have 2 children. When my eldest was 4 we opened stocks and shares ISAs with a lump sum and we put in £70 a month each. We’ve started claim child benefit too, so now pay in child benefit (minus what we have to pay back- roughly estimated of course).

if you’re comfortable sharing, I’d be interested to know what you’re saving for your DC?

I think living at home and commuting will become the future

my children have the fees and loan. I have no intention whatsoever of funding these despite being a high income household. The debt doesn’t bother any of us as we see it as an investment and a tax

however, on top of that I pay accommodation costs and they live off their loan. I budget 8k Pa for this per child and can manage it from income

Back when?
How old are you assuming I am, out of curiosity?

The system is based on parents making it up to the maximum loan level

We started putting money into stocks every money from birth. That continues to this day. But now that we are less than 4 years away, we are putting large sums into a high interest savings account because we don’t want to take the risk of loss without time to recover.

I didn't save anything for ds for uni because he'd take loans for it and get a job and we'd just top up a little if needed, we saved for a house deposit instead (about 25k total). Then DS got a degree apprenticeship which is a fantastic opportunity for him that I'd definitely recommend.

You don’t look a day over 25

im assuming you’ve graduated so didn’t have the same deficit in loan that upcoming students would have that parents would be expected to make up

We have just decided to stop DCs student loan. The interest is phenomenal now. We will pay from our savings and they will pay us back the tuition element so that they don’t have the interest to worry about.

its cheaper than school fees for us and we are used to paying those.

I would echo a pp above. Dc has tried really hard this summer to find work. Nothing available. The zero hours gig economy means that it’s much harder for students to get work.

None. They had the Child Trust fund which I added a bit, so about £3k which is supposed to go towards a car (my son has released his and spent quite a bit on clothes)! He works full time didn't go to uni.
My DD goes in September and I'll be paying the balance of her accommodation as her (almost full) maintenance loan doesn't cover it, and an allowance £200/month and hopefully she'll get a job. She didn't get in to the local uni she wanted (LSE).
Martin Lewis will tell you to put the money towards a property deposit (when the time comes) rather than uni.
Degree apprenticeships are extremely competitive.

I read it the same as you £5k per year of life. That would be nice.

Im aiming to save £30k for each child and then also pay their accommodation as best as I can. I’d rather the £30k though is for a house deposit and they take out loans if they decide to go to uni.

Well how does Martin Lewis propose one pays if the money is put towards property?

like most top tier grad schemes too and red brick universities are too. Hopefully they become more and more common

I worry about deposits. My younger sibling stayed at home and took the money saved as a deposit for a house with their fiancé. Pre nups in the UK hold little water so ring fencing the money was virtually impossible. Fiancé didn’t pay a penny. Never made it down the aisle and fiancé won’t leave the house to facilitate a sale, so will walk away with 50% of the deposit + equity despite changing locks on sibling.

im now of the opinions deposits should be saved together

I went to uni with nothing from my parents, they simply didn’t have it.

But did you get full loans? My parents didn't give me anything either but I got full loans (and some bursaries too as they were around then!) but with our income we are expected to contribute up to £6000 a year. Yes they could work and I hope they do to top up and for the experience, but it feels a bit unfair they are £6000 less off than those with the full loans due to the parental contribution we are expected to pay, so we must pay it.

But then they have less loan to pay back afterwards. The student from a family whose income qualifies them for full loan is less likely to be getting financial help from parents. So if the difference between min and max loan is 5 k a year that's 15k extra the student has to pay back.

Whereas someone who has less loan and parents pay more ( and often pay whole rent etc) have less loan to pay back overall

@Bluffyslummers its something like a deed of trust these days which a solicitor can easily draw up. It’s not unusual and protects the deposit. We’re looking into it for our DD now.

@Gogogo12345 absolutely, they benefit in the long term, I'm talking more about the fairness in the short term, I suppose I could ask for the money back (I won't) but ultimately, if there is a minimum income recommended for students to have, and they can't get maximum loans, I've got to prepare to make the shortfall.

Marriage renders these null i think

This is how I tackled it. I didn't manage to save up for our kids so that they had a lump sum, however, I had just managed to finish paying off the mortgage by the time the eldest went. All spare cash went into this, as I knew this would then give me x amount a month 'spare'. They have taken out the loan to cover tuition fees, plus whatever maintenance loan they were able to take out, as the interest on these is really low. It is and will be their responsibility to pay these back when their salaries meet the threshold (i.e. I'm not paying them back for them). I supplemented by paying for their accommodation, so that they could budget with their maintenance loan for all other expenditure.
I appreciate not everybody is in the position to do that, but this did work well for us. I took on extra jobs like exam marking to help out, especially this year when their two courses overlapped - 2 lots of accommodation a month! When my eldest was on his internship last year and was receiving a fairly good salary, he paid for his own accommodation.

Nothing saved, youngest now 17 is the on,y one who may go to university next year and he’ll go local so will live at home. Tuition fees he can get the loans for.

I got full loans, yes, as much as I could!

I accepted is not realistic for everybody and it costs lots of money. But that does not make it a ‘scam’.

Ignorance is bliss! I used to hate my daughter coming home and going out in central London and coming back late at night. She said that she was always going out when at uni. But that was different, I didn’t have to witness it!

We've put £100 aside each month in his own bank account so by the time he gets to 18 he will have over 21,000.

But we've also placed 150.00 each (300 a month) in a separate bank account which will total to over 72,000 by the time he's 20 which we will use for his driving lessons, buying him a car, uni (tho he doesn't need to pay tuition fees for thus later) and to help him start his life out.

I personally have also put in a different account 150,000 which was half of an inheritance payout I recieved which he will get also when he's much older and sensible.

It isn’t the end of the world. I paid back a student loan without really noticing it, it’s taken at source before you even see your pay.

This is true. However, I just got my statement through. Now I've been on/off over whether or not I've been eligible to repay due to maternity, breaks between jobs, part time etc. So obviously that's played a massive part in what I have/haven't paid, interest accrued etc. I currently owe approximately the same I did at graduation. I understand that. But it did hurt seeing from my statement that nearly £800 of my salary paid to Student Loans this year has reduced the overall amount owed by a grand total of £16. :-(

I'm abroad and there are no student loans. Tuition is very cheap though. Very common for kids to stay home and go to a local uni. We saved the child benefit and dc got a reasonable sum at 18, but wanted to live in halls/flat share so I pay rent/phone and she was expected to find a job to fund her social life. She's very tight with her own cash though and mostly saves to travel. Seems to be a whizz at food budgeting etc.