Student expenses, not covered by tuition fee loans

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Radio News all talking & blithering on about tuition fees. How much debt, what it means, Oh Woe is Me stuff.

What about living expenses for students? Are they paid purely out of the students' pocket (or their family pockets)? Are there loans available, to pay for living expenses, on the same turns as the loans that pay tuition? I understand that means-tested grants are available, too (can someone link to a chart?), but that the grants are small & won't cover full living costs (how much can the grants be?). If not the same terms as the tuition-fee loans, what are terms of the living expenses loans?

TIA :)

your tuition fees get paid then you get a separate living loan depending on your circumstances determines how much you get.
Then a part time job and grants/bursaries should pick up the slack.
I am just about to start and have NO help from family so will just have to survive.

So what are the terms for paying off the living loan, is it also only due to pay after you start earning £21k, and does it get written off after 30 yrs? Are the repayments a % of your earnings rather than a set amount (is it possible to overpay like one can with the tuition loans)? Will the living loan cover your costs, is it variable or a fixed amount meaning you must find money from elsewhere to cover full living costs?
Sorry for dumb questions, the media chat always seems to gloss over living expenses.

the whole lot is from the student loans company and yes it is directly taken out of your wages as soon as you start earning 21 grand plus.
It is just a graduate tax because graduates generally enjoy better working conditions in terms of salary, rights pay rises over the course of a working life.

Right, so T&C for the living expenses loan is pretty much same terms as the tuition loans. Just added on top. That's helpful :).
Will probably be all changed by the time any of DC might be contemplating these things, but at least I can understand the political debates better, now.

Yes which is why people aren't quite right to be deterred by the hike in prices because it is just an introduction of a graduate tax and will enable uni's to provide better facilities and bursaries to those who need it most

Broodyandpoor and will enable uni's to provide better facilities and bursaries to those who need it most

Hmmm - I thought primarily the increase in tuition fees was to make up for the much reduced direct income to the universities from the government?

You get
Tuition fee loan - non-means tested, repayable, £9000 pa

And then for living costs
Maintenance loan - means tested, repayable on the same terms as the tuition fee loan
Maintenance grant - means tested, non-repayable

For those sums, use the student finance calculator www.studentfinance.direct.gov.uk/portal/page?_pageid=153,4680136&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Finally, for those on low incomes, there is a university bursary available, which is means tested and non repayable. This is administered by the university, using data from Student Finance, and if you're eligible then you are guaranteed to get it. To find out how much they're eligible for (NB the better universities usually give more) you'll have to have a look at the individual university.

For those on the lowest incomes (I think the threshold is £25,000pa household income, with amounts given tapering gradually with increased household income over that amount), you would get
Tuition fee loan - £9000
Maintenance loan - £3875
Maintenance grant - £3250
Bursary - as mentioned before it's variable, but at University of Manchester (the country's biggest university) it's £3000 in the first year (£1000 cash, and then £2000 off either halls or tuition fees) and £2500 (cash) in subsequent years. www.manchester.ac.uk/undergraduate/studentfinance/home-eu-2012/university-scholarships-and-bursaries/

This is most definitely enough to live off. £10,125 a year is a princely sum for a single adult - I (as a student) have spent about £9000 in the last 12 months - and that includes a trip to France, trips home, participating in a fairly expensive sport, a house deposit for my second year house (£300) and two months of summer rent (£660!!)

If you have a higher income, then you will be expected to subsidise your offspring. However, you have to remember that you will no longer be paying for their food, hot water, extra-curricular activities, bus fares, school uniforms etc. etc.

There's lots of info here, including a myth-busting guide www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes

But it's not £10,000 to live off, is it? The Tuition fee loan covers the cost of the tuition, it isn't for living off? So they actually have £7125 to live off - I very much doubt most students will be getting a bursary on top of a maintenance loan and a grant! Let's say you're not in London, I'd estimate a room costing £100/week, as it is locally, which comes to £4800. That leaves you £2325 to pay for all your bills and food - £193.75 a month. Admittedly this is a rather pessimistic view, as I live in the South East, and have assumed that the £100/week is for a room in a flat with no extra bills involved - but this is what we've been told our flat would fetch if let to students. After taking off bills, there's really not a lot left at all.

Mine is £7,500 for just living so I thin youre self supporting it's pretty generous

very true butterfly. And if you don't get the maintenance loan (and so also no bursary) you are stuffed if your parents cannot afford to give you £3250 a year. I teach quite a few students who will be in that situation, and they are very worried on how they will manage on just the loan, plus bank overdraft plus holiday jobs (not all unis permit term time jobs, or some courses don't allow the time for one)

butterfly it is correct if you are from a low income family students can receive a maintenance loan, grant and a bursary. If however your family income is middle income your DC might only get £3875 maintenance loan so you would have to contribute up to £6000 if you want your DC to have the same amount of money as a child from a low income family. That is obviously not possible for most of us to do hence the phrase "the squeezed middle."

Mu understanding is that the tution fees loan is available to all, but that the loan for living expenses is discretionary and based upon the student's parents' income.

Yes word all students can get the fees loan and the minimum amount they can get for a maintenance loan is £3875. The maintenance loan is means tested so this can increase and some students will be entitled to a maintenance grant ( non repayable) too and a scholarship/bursary (means tested and also non repayable).

Yes, very worried about how we are to support DS. I've seen estimates of how much he 'should' need to live on each month. There are 3 of us left at home with less than 3 times that amount to live on, but with high commuting costs and essential bills more than 3 times as much as a first-year student would be paying in university accommodation. We'll help out as much as we can, but we don't have a hope of finding £3250. Savings account has more like £32 in it. What's really gutting is that he misses out on an unusually generous bursary from the university because DH's annual salary is about £62 too high.

My experience from my DD who is about to go into her final year is that the Mainteance loan is about HALF what a student needs to cover all their living expenses. ie it will cover rent for halls/house but not the rest. We pay the rent on her house and she uses the loan for the rest.

"the minimum amount they can get for a maintenance loan is £3875"

Just looked at the accomodation prices for next year at DD's old university - cheapest undergraduate hall price is £3914 - and that's without food.

Somehting very much in Oxbridge's favour is how (relatively) cheap college accomodation is. Thos eliving expenses go further.

Going to uni in London and renting, even in a shared house must be mahoosivley expensive.

The maintenance loan does not cover all their living expenses.

Students either have their accommodation costs paid by their parents (so that the maintenance loan can be used for living expenses) or they get a part-time job to cover the gap between maintenance loan and the total of their outgoings.

Is the amount of loan available bigger for those going to university in say London?

There used to be London weighting in the old grant system, I think?
This is fascinating, I knew I was right to ask about living expenses.

Sheesh - this is ridiculous. Back in the day (1980s) my full grant paid for EVERYTHING (halls, food, beer money, books, clothes, transport). My parents didn't have to help out at all. And the only jobs I had were in the holidays, not term-time.

How can the powers that be justify a maintenance loan being at a level that isn't enough to cover a student's living expenses? I don't mean optional extras, like a social life (for which I would expect DD to get a part-time job), I mean accommodation, bills and food.

I have my own post-divorce debts that I'm still paying off (so my credit rating is poor, meaning I can't borrow any more money in my own name to help DCs out) and DD's dad will stop paying maintenance once she leaves home, so I can't divert that money towards her living expenses away from home (and he sure as hell won't give her any help).

I guess all we can do is see what happens, and if DD can't afford to stay at uni once she gets there, she'll have to drop out. There's no other way round it.

White Try not to panic at this stage about money. Yes it is rubbish that students don't get enough money to live on, but most unis are set up for that.

Most unis now have jobs shops on campus to match students with part time jobs both on campus and in the local area. Sometimes there are also options to help out on open days etc, which might not in cash, but will 'pay' in other usual ways (we offer printer credits).

Most banks offer free overdrafts and you can borrow from these in term-time and (hopefully) pay some of it off during the summer.

If students are really destitute all unis also have welfare funds they can apply for, the students support service will know of these.

I have had students studying with me whose parent's have refused (for various reasons) to fill in the forms so they can't even apply for the maintenance loan (and are obviously not getting any money from their parents) and they have just about managed to get through financially. It is very tough, but it can be done.

God, thank you all so much for this thread - will read it with DD (who is just starting sixth form) and try to plan a bit more effectively now.

She just started her first part-time job, bless her, and is hoping to save a bit, but the sums involved have been freaking her out. Posters here explain it really well, pros and cons.

Thanks

ButterflyFace it is £10000 to live off.

Using the example above, assuming your DC is going to Manchester (I had to pick I uni, so it's just an example; clearly the bursary element varies by uni - some will give more, others less)

Maintenance loan - £3875
Maintenance grant - £3250
Bursary - as mentioned before it's variable, but at University of Manchester (the country's biggest university) it's £3000 in the first year (£1000 cash, and then £2000 off either halls or tuition fees) and £2500 (cash) in subsequent years.

£3875 loan + £3250 grant + £1000 cash bursary + £2000 accommodation bursary =£10,125 to cover living expenses. And that's still more than any student really needs to live off!

Entirely separately to that, then there is the £9000 tuition fee loan.

My dd qualifies for the 3875 loan, which adds up at RPI plus 2% till you start to pay it off. Wouldn't cover hall fees at her chosen university.

Additionally, she's told me there's a department weekend trip costing £115 two weeks into term. I'm sure there are people on very limited resources who will struggle to pay for this. OK it's not compulsary, but it doesn't really seem fair.

People I know who are getting the most help are definitely in a better position than some of the squeezed middle. I'm angry and feel hard done by, but we'll be fine. I just know so many people that others feel are pretty well off who are suffering left right and centre at the moment. Just wait till season tickets go up.

And before you say it, dd is on one of those courses you are not allowed to do paid work on during term time.

Haven't felt this political since the anti Maggie days when I was a student!