Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

DD going to uni - we don't qualify for anything but the minimum loan - what does everyone else do in this situation?

69 replies

UTR · 16/04/2012 12:59

This is a question specifically about/ for people who do not qualify for the maximum living cost loan and/or any means-tested grants/bursaries/ benefits etc.

Our first DC is (grades permitting) going to uni this autumn.

She will take the same, non-means-tested, £9k tuition fee loan that everyone is entitled to, to pay her £9k tuition fees every year.

In addition, she will be able to borrow the minimum living cost loan (65% of £5500 which is:) £3500.

Her accommodation alone - non-catered - is £5800.

On top of this, she will need money for food and toiletries, stationery, travel, going out etc.

She is doing a very heavy-weight course with lectures pretty much 9.00 to 5.00 and lots of work, so a part-time job during term-time is not advised.

She can and will work when she comes back home during her holidays and whilst this will help a bit, I think that it is unlikely to make a hugely significant contribution.

I have heard that people in our situation (who don't qualify for the full living cost loan or any means-tested bursaries/ grants etc) let their kids take the £3500 living cost loan for food toiletries etc (ie living costs) and that they pay the accommodation costs of hall in the first year (£5800 pa) and rent in a shared student house (hopefully quite a bit cheaper) in the second and subsequent years.

Has anyone got any thoughts or advice?

OP posts:

kingprawntikka · 18/04/2012 12:45

My son is in his first year and is also doing a course that involves 9-5 hours. He is entitled to the same percentage of loan as your daughter.

We are paying his accommodation fees. £550 a month and he is living off his loan. I have just asked him, and he says he spends around £40-50 pounds a week on food. He is self catering so that is three meals a day and includes all toiletries/washing powder etc. The laundrette cost him around £7-8 a week. One load for clothes/ one load bedding and towels.

He isn't a big spender and rarely goes to a night club. He has been to the cinema once or twice , he mainly socialises in peoples flats or the uni bar.

He has money left each term, so far an average of 3-400 pounds. He is saving that, as his sister will overlap his final year with her first, and we will no longer be able to pay his rent. £400 for nine terms will hopefully mean he can just about cover his accommodation in his final year from these savings.

We take him to the supermarket at the start of each term and pay the bill, and I do send some food back with him.When he is hom,e I tend to pay if he needs new clothes. He uses the household toiletries and pays for his own bus fares/ socialising etc.

When you are planning for this bear in mind you may need to pay a deposit for accommodation as soon as your daughters place is confirmed. In our case that was £550 pounds within five days of the A-level results. We have had to pay an additional £550 this month as a deposit for his room in second year.

Start up costs were a bit unexpected too. His uni accommodation didn't provide bedding, crockery, utensils, pans etc. Even down to a kettle. This was a surprise to us as when I went to uni (many moons ago!) all that was supplied. Your bedding was even washed weekly for you!

DonInKillerHeels · 18/04/2012 14:50

If her contact hours are 9-5 I'm assuming she's doing medicine or something.

Summer job.
Bar/waitressing work on Friday and Saturday nights.
Bit of help from the bank of mum and dad, especially for set-up costs.

Most students work during term time, even if they are technically not supposed to.

einsteinsrelative · 18/04/2012 15:04

It's tough, isn't it? Effectively you HAVE to sub a student if they only qualify for the minimum loan. I feel for those kids whose parents are not prepared or able to do that (eg my DD has an Asian friend whose parents do not believe in university education for girls so she can't go as they are quite well off so she won't qualify for more than the minimum loan). If studying medicine or even other sciences, there is no way that the level of work required is compatible with a term time job. Students at Oxford or Cambridge can get sent down for having a job. It's frightening. Only the very poor (on full loans and possibly even free fees) and the very rich (with parents prepared to pay) will be able to go to university easily from next year.

VivaLeBeaver · 18/04/2012 17:51

6.6% interest is scary. I know people say oh well you only pay off what you can afford but how do they work the repayments out?

With the old (my style) loan once you earn over about 27k you have to pay back the lot in 60 installmets. Now if you earn 27 k a year agter uni thats not so bad. But if you didn't get there for 20 years (like me) and the total debt has gone up at a significant percentage (currently 5.2%) then thats quite scary.

My debt has doubled in the 20 years since I left uni - from 3k to 6k and I still don't actually earn enough to pay it off but probably will do in the next 5 years. Its going up by £250 a year, then a bit more the next, etc.

Now if that was 30k debt doubled to 60k I'd be very stressed.

gelatinous · 18/04/2012 18:03

Viva, you pay 9% on earnings over £21k, so even if you have a huge debt 20 years on you pay exactly the same as if the debt is nearly cleared. Then after 30 year whatever is left is wiped out. It's effectively a tax, because the loan expires.

gelatinous · 18/04/2012 18:04

The interest rate is irrelevant if you never pay it off, and cynically, they've set it high early on to ensure that most people don't ever pay it off.

VivaLeBeaver · 18/04/2012 18:06

So if you earn 21k you pay nothing.

If you earn 30k you pay back 9% on 9k....so about £800 a year.
If you earn 22k you pay back 9% on 1k..so about 90?

gelatinous · 18/04/2012 20:04

Exactly that viva. And if you lose your job, then you go back to paying nothing.

countydurhamlass · 18/04/2012 20:29

but if you want to get a mortgage do they not take your student loan into account? ie without it they say you can borrow £80,000 but if you have say a loan for £15,000 then you will only be able to borrow £65,000??? like other loans

goingmadinthecountry · 18/04/2012 23:52

gelatinous, it's the way that interest will accrue at a much higher rate than before that is scary - it's CPI plus 3% while you're studying then CPI until you start paying. At the moment that's about 6.3% but last Sept would have been over 8%. That could add up to quite an amount.

It apparently is not taken into consideration when applying for a mortgage.

Original poster

UTR · 19/04/2012 08:24

Is it 30 years after the start of the course or 30 years after the end of the period of borrowing?

OP posts:

gelatinous · 19/04/2012 09:45

It's 30 years from the first April after graduating

Original poster

UTR · 19/04/2012 20:19

Thank you gelatinous

OP posts:

DonInKillerHeels · 19/04/2012 20:30

"It apparently is not taken into consideration when applying for a mortgage."

Anecdotally it is, unfortunately.

MedusaIsHavingABadHairDay · 19/04/2012 22:22

I'm staggered at the amount of parents here who are paying (or able to pay) their children's accommodation etc for them... we can't:(

We earn just enough that DD1 only gets the tiniest grant (£100 a term) , but e have four children, one disabled and we simply do not have the funds to help. We buy her books and she gets £30 a week for food and that is it.. she has to pay for her student flat share and everything else herself. She is at a very ok yah uni with a lot of wealthy students :(

She is also a med student, so can't work in term time at all.

However.. she gets by! She works in the holidays.. has done Mc Ds , agency work all sorts.. and she manages. I HATE that we cant give more financial support but it hasn't prevented her from managing ok, and she still has a social life! She has learned to be a very savvy shopper.. goes at the end of the day for bargains, pound shop for toiletries etc.

We are sending DD2 off in September (A levels willing!) and she too will have to manage ..it's tough but they can do it!

The galling thing is, if we didn't work, our girls would actually have been far better off... being low -but-not-low-enough earners really sucks these days:(

LeeCoakley · 19/04/2012 23:25

Yes, we're in the same position Medusa.

IShallWearMidnight · 19/04/2012 23:34

that's something you don't always think of when choosing a uni - are there poundshops - DD1 is at Bath, and as far as she's been able to find, there are no poundshops for cheap toiletries etc.

DD is hoping to earn enough money during the summer holiday to compensate for the fact that she can't really fit in a part time job during term time, or Christmas/Easter holidays (Maths degree, so pretty intensive).

Also, you need to factor in that once out of halls (Y2 onwards), contracts tend to be for 12 moths, and not Sept/Oct-May/June, there's the whole summer break to be paid for, even if they're at home.

JustGettingByMum · 20/04/2012 11:17

IShallWear suggest to your DD that she jumps on a train or bus to Trowbridge (about 20 mins away approx 8 miles). Lots of pound shops, all within 3 min walk of the station.
Can give more detials if helpful.

IShallWearMidnight · 20/04/2012 11:54

I'll pass that on justgettingby, thanks. She tends to stock up when she comes home especially if Im paying

Flip

1 2 3