Funding your cherubs through Uni how?

[Piffle]

Ok
Do how are your Uni starters being funded?
Specifically if they can only get the £3575 amount of maintenance loan?
We are really struggling to budget everything :(

ponders. Yes they did have loans. DD1 didn't hace a tution loan because she started the year before the tution loan went up to 3.5K. We paid her tuiton loan so she only had maintenance loan,. DD2 has tuiton and maintenance loan as we an't afford to pay 3.5k a year. They didn't get maximum loans and it didn't and still doesn't for DD2 cover the cost of the accomadation. Well for DD1 it might have just covered it,

DS1 could not afford to go if we did not help, even if he worked the shortfall between his accommodation and costs from the £3.5 k maintenance loan is about £4-5 k

He could find a weekend job IF his study permits it as he is doing Maths at a top Maths Uni and it is hard graft according to 2nd years he has spoken to while visiting the Uni. I expect him to work holidays solidly if possible, to reduce the amount he has to borrow.

I feel quite the same, Piffle. But on the other hand I really want her to come away with us in the summer before she goes away..... There's a phone survey employer that is very flexible round here so she's hoping to get work there. She was doing some waitressing but we suggested she stop to concentrate on exams at the moment.

I have been feeling quite depressed when working out what the new interest rates do to the loan. That was the final straw for me - am at a total loss how the new system is fair to anyone.

Banks could actually offer a competitive loan I think since rates tend towards RPI (jan 2012 stood at 3.9%) plus3%

A cautionary tale. DS1 went to local Uni. He could have lived at home and driven in each day, but he wanted to stay in Halls.

So he had his tuition fee loan, his maintenance loan and I gave him £30 a week towards food etc. His father (we're divorced) then decided to pay for all his accommodation costs. The result was he was 'loaded'. So much so that studying fell by the wayside.

He scraped through the first year and failed the second. He then repeated the 2nd year. I made my £30 per week contingent on him passing exams, presenting coursewoork etc. Which he didn't. So I stopped paying.

Meanwhile, ex-H funded all accommodation in the Repeat Year 2 to 'give him a second chance'. So DS had tuition fees and accommodation fully paid and his maintenance loan as spending money. He failed his repeat of Year 2 and has now dropped out.

It was made far too easy for him. He had absolutely no investment in his own education and as a result it was not something that he was grateful for. He totally abused his time at Uni.

Perhaps being a 'poorer' student may just have made him realise why he was at Uni and persuade him to invest in his own education by taking a part-time job.

I have no issues with parents who wish to fully fund / feather bed but if I was doing this again I would pay the money out post-graduation, or at the end of each successfully completed year.

It may depends on the child too. Those fully funded like ours have done fine but they had fully funded private schools too and that didn't stop them working. They are very very appreciative of it and I don't think they ever felt remotely loaded. If your rent and fees are paid and you have the £100 a week ours had on top of that and being fed in holidays etc I don't think that's relaly loaded. You still have to save for books, clothes, travel, going out and all the rest of things.

Well Ds will have rent and fees paid ish by the loan for the fees (£9k plus the maintanence loan £3575) we top up his rent.
And then on top of that he will have to struggle by on about £55-£60 a week
but we will pay travel, sports membership and still buy him clothes... plus grandparents and rich uncles will also be benevolent, he can probably stay rent free in Ldn with my brother in hols and work in Ldn too

Surely the point about 'loaded' students is that they may go out a lot and spend it on booze, with the new-found freedom of being away from home at 18? Don't see any relevance or comparison of whether or not they were private school educated or otherwise. They were children then, weren't they?
I think it's a well-known fact that people for example who inherit or get access to a trust fund at too young an age can go off the rails...I'm sure it's been the same with some students, however they are being funded, and I'm afraid my dd might be one of them (in 6 years' time)!

We pay tuition fees for dd (3300is per year) (from some money my Dad left me which I used for tuition fees for both kids

We pay the rent on her house and she lives on the maintenance loan plus she has a part time job as she is saving to travel. We buy her a food parcel at the start of each term too. While she may be considered "loaded" she certainly does not spend it on booze or idle her time away. She knows she is lucky, but not as lucky as I was - state paid the tuition fees and I got a decent maintenance grant from the state too.

We're not at this stage yet, but for my DNs it was loans and whatever odd jobs/summer jobs they could find. And finally, one of them moved back home - thankfully Uni was near enough to commute from home.

Sorry OP but why are you struggling? surely its your off spring working out their budget. Why are you all molly coddling grown ups?

Can't speak for OP, morethan, but in my dd's case her hall fees will be £6000 (inc food and shuttle transport to and from campus), she'll have many books to buy (apparently updated every year so although there are hundreds around 2nd hand, they can't be used for course - sounds mad and unfair but that's the way it is) and lots of other expenses. Her maintenance loan will be £3500. If it's worth taking it at the new rates. Can't see how that can stretch to everything even if she works over summer.

I don't see it as molly coddling at all. Of course she'll budget, but simply doesn't have access to enough money without support from home. It's supposed to be hard work at university, of course, but it is supposed to be fun as well. Or has the government changed its policy on that too?

potatoprints, have you got one of these "grown-ups"?

Have a question to ask all of you on behalf of a group of mums of kids starting uni in 2012 as you seem to be in the "know " about these things . If parents earn more than the ceiling amount how much loan can the kids get, if I have understood things correctly they can apply for a loan and the loan can get paid to the uni to pay for the tuition fees, is that correct ? But can everybody get a loan to cover their tuition fees and how much is it? Can they get a loan for the full 9000 or is means tested ?

The tuition loan isn't means tested, homeaway - everybody gets (or is charged ) that

The maintenance loan is means-tested. There is a minimum of £3575 as piffle mentioned in her initial post - that's what you get with family income of around £60K upwards (after deductions for eg pension contributions, other children in family). If family income is below that the student gets a larger amount of loan and for lower incomes there is a grant element too which doesn't have to repaid.

For 2012/13 finance they look at household income for 2010/11

\link{http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/Typesoffinance/DG_171557\this direct.gov page} has details of grant amounts (nothing for income over £42,600)

there is a \link{http://www.studentfinance.direct.gov.uk/portal/page?_pageid=153,4680136&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL\finance calculator} there too which will give you a rough idea

Ponders, yes I have eldest ds 20 due to complete next month. Lived at home, worked from 16, has paid fees no loan, paid for own driving lessons, car and insurance. Saving for mortgage deposit now. I would have helped a bit but for him he is very stubborn, old for his age (always has been) and wanted to provide for himself. However, I still would only provide a small amount of help as I too think it's important for them to stand on own two feet. Ds 2 will is 17 and following in his footsteps.

potatoprints the issue of funding is very different if your DCs live at home during their university years rather than living independently.

webwiz. Yes I realise this but we could never have afforded to give ds1 or ds2 anything remotely like others are posting and honestly am glad I didn't have to make the decision on how much to fund. My ds1 had many peers who dropped out similar to the cautionary tale above, it is all to common

potatoprints, paid for his own insurance??? Quotes we got (for 18-yr-old) were c £3000 on a Ford Ka.

Fees also c £3000. Even living at home there's no way mine could have earned enough, while studying, to buy a car, insure it, run it, pay tuition, & save for a mortgage.

What is your DS studying & what does he do to earn money?

Ponders. He is a real saver, honestly. Started work at Kentucky p/t 16- 18 and did full time every holiday. He was studying A levels then. This money bought driv lessons, car, insurance. He also didn't get any perks here as we couldn't name drive for various reasons. Then saved summer money at 18 towards first year fees/ bit extra for a buffer. Started asda before going to local college for franchised course from a uni. Continued here until now doing whatever hours he can get to fit in with his course. I never see him tbh as his course also has a compulsory placement with it as well. Plus the usual girlfriend and occasional night out. He also drives for his friends who pay him, this pays part of insurance and his fuel bill for the month. Don't get me wrong although I believe in self funding where possible I would help him a bit if he asked but he never does.

morethan, that's great for you and your ds but don't judge others.

My dd wants to study law - our local university (still 20 m away) isn't exactly where you'd go for law if you were planning a high profile career. I also believe a big part of becoming an adult is living away from home. She will hopefully also be spending a year abroad. I wouldn't have missed out on my 4 years away from home at university for anything - my parents lived in Lancs and London/Cambridge were great places for what I wanted to study. It was the making of me.

We don't indulge dd (much) and she works very hard - always has. We see this as an extension of our parenting. Sadly now it's expensive, but worth it. And we have 4 children so 4 times the cost but worth it.

I just think it's a little much to judge the parenting of others - it's not always as straightforward as it obviously has been for your dc - degree at local university not always appropriate/good enough depending on where you live and some of us feel living away from home is an important part of becoming independent - and reading what others say on here, we are certainly not mollycoddling.