When and how do you top up student maintenance loans?

[BatshitIsTheOnlyExplanation]

My DC is off to uni this weekend and will just get the basic maintenance so I will need to top up. The question is when? Termly? Monthly? One complication is that first terms hall fees are due on Monday (about £2k) but student finance doesn't arrive until October.

Should I pay the hall fees, then they use student finance for living expenses? Except that the will still need money for half of September.

DC is not great at managing money.

What do/did you do?

DD starting next weekend. We are paying her accommodation. She’s got the basic maintenance which she will transfer to us then we are giving her a monthly budget.

My son started last year. Are you sure student maintenance paid in October - his was paid last week and similar last year. We pay his accommodation costs and the minimum maintainance gives him about £120 a week to live off. He has two accounts and transfers 120 a week to one account. We pay for extras like train tickets home

Give the fact DC isn’t great with money, I would cover halls/rent, and then they have to feed/clothe/party out of their loan.

We topped up to the maximum and paid termly in proportion to the maintenance loan installments (so less in the last one as it doesn't cover the summer). I usually gave it at about the same time as the loan instalments arrive, but would pay it early/first of the month if necessary to line up with rent payments. Your child will soon get better at budgetting!

Might be worth opening a Monzo account or something that has pots and doing some budgetting basics like working out how much to allow for food, transport, toiletries etc so they know how much they have left for socialising.

These days, lots of students are looking for next year's accommodation at the end of this term/start of next year, so remember to keep some back for a possible deposit.

I wouldn't have done this for my kids unless they asked me to, I wanted to foster independence, rather than trying to keep control. I hope you are going to give her any interest the money earns while you are "looking after it"!

Mine get minimum maintenance, which they live on during the 3 terms, then we pay the halls/rent. They top up with holiday working back home.