Uni loans confusion

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

Hi my daughter has an unconditional offer to study at Bournemouth uni in Sept. Her grandparents have kindly offered to pay for her uni accommodation and between us I think we can cover food and living allowances.

My question is it is still worth applying for a maintenance loan and just taking the bare minimum (I’m assuming she’d qualify as I’m a single parent and earn around 42k a year).

Or do we just apply for the tuition fees loan? I’ve just been looking at how to do this and it looks like I need to print off a 62 page document to complete and post 😳🤯

What do other parents do?

TIA.

She applies not you. We’ve never printed anything out so no need for that.

She will have to pay back any loan taken out so it’s whether you think she will need the extra money. Or I guess you could put it in a savings account- not done the maths on that tho ie is it worth it?

She would be eligible for more than the minimum loan but not the max. If she wants more than the minimum loan, you have to supply details if your earnings (quite painless). Hth

It definitely says you have to complete the paper copy if not applying for the maintenance loan, I’ve looked it up a few times that’s why I was querying it.

It sounds like she’s better of applying on line but just getting the minimum maintenance loan amount I think 🤔

Im trying to keep the debt to a minimum as much as possible for her.

Don't take out any loan you don't need

If you want to keep debt to a minimum, work out if she can manage without the maintenance loan at all, surely. You say GPs are paying her accomm and you are funding her food and other expenses. She doesn’t have to take the min loan - the min refers to the least you’ll get, not that you must take at least that amount.

A glance at gov.uk suggests you need to apply by post but only if you are not eligible for a maintenance loan? Which your dd is?

My brother took out the loan and invested it in a high interest account then paid it back at the end, keeping the profit.

You can apply online for a tuition fee only. The printed form is only for those who are only eligible for tuition fee loans and not maintenance loans (as opposed to those who are eligible for both and choosing not to take out one).

Yes @redskyAtNigh puts it better than I did. Don’t apply for a loan you don’t need, esp when you can deffo apply online

www.gov.uk/apply-for-student-finance

Thank you thats where I was getting confused! So she should apply as she’s eligible but she can decline the maintenance bit on the online form?

@TeenLifeMum Im thinking of doing similar but just with the amount that dd would have spent on accommodation (she’s staying at home)
Do you mind me asking roughly how much he made from this please?

@chatchatchatty he tried to pay off the full amount but the student loan company couldn’t tell him what was owed. They used to give you a statement from April you’d get in July so it was impossible to pay it off as a lump sum (that’s changed as I was able to pay mine off in 2015) but he was moving to Canada so gave up trying and he’ll not pay it off and will keep the money. He spent hours on the phone to student loans going in circles.

That’s exactly what Dd has done. She is taking the loan out for her tuition fees and as part of working through that online form, it asks whether you want to also take out the maintenance loan. We just ticked no and it’s all done.

@DressWarrior thankyou, was the form fairly straightforward? Dd hasn’t filled it in yet although I’m guessing as long as it’s done before Sept it’s okay.

The deadline is way before September - the tuition fee is paid to the uni around the end of September. I think the deadline is fairly soon.

@Timetakesacigarette thanks I’ve just checked and the deadline is the 15th of May 🤦‍♀️ so she needs to get on with it!

Yes it was. The most difficult part was deciding who to put as an alternative contact

@DressWarrior we had the same dilemma in the end we left it blank as it was optional.

@TeenLifeMum Interested in this as dd is moving to Canada and afaik you still have to pay it off? Is he planning to ? Dd has been told obviously they can’t take it out her wages but that they will tell her an amount depending on wages and she will have to set up a direct debit. Not sure what happens if she didn’t do this seeing as she’s not intending coming back.

For his loan, it timed out after 25 years so depends on the loan. His was the first year of fees in 1998 so I wouldn’t want to say now as terms have changed. I paid mine off about 10 years ago and called them for a final amount to clear it and they could give it to me but in 2008 they couldn’t do that.

This with absolute bells on

Thanks. Yes I think back then if you moved abroad they just didn’t bother with you. A friend moved to Ireland after we graduated in 1997 and never had to pay hers back. But now they say you have to pay it back.

I applied and didn’t have to do anything physically. You’re reading it wrong.