How much should parents give a 1st year undergraduate to live on?

[SteveB32]

Our daughter is about to leave us for Univ. She is living in self-catering rooms with all services provided. She does not receive any bursaries or grants. We will supply all her stationery, toiletries and a fair bit of her food. Travel costs for her will be mimimal. What does everyone think would be a fair amount to give her per month? She does not have a part time job, has no inclination to get one and has not worked over the summer. We are paying for her summer holiday in Spain next year and a two week project in Africa. What would be a reasonable amount to expect her to live on?

chunky I agree with your saying that DCs should at least get summer jobs as future employers value the skills that can be learnt. Students do need to learn to budget and live within their means.p

However I am not sure I agree totally with your comments about how much parents are expected to contribute. On the one hand If you are from a low income family they you will get a loan and a grant. In some cases also a bursary and maybe something from the National Scholarship programme. Universities seem to vary in their generosity. This can mean that students be given between £7000+ up to £9000+ given to them. Not all of which has to be paid back. Those students whose parents earn a higher amount may only be entitled to a minimum loan that will not even cover their accommodation. Yet their parents are criticised for helping them out and that they are not standing on their own feet and should get out there and get a job. The government expect their parents to contribute a certain amount. IMO both are being given financial contributions towards their university costs yet it only seems to be the latter group that are heavily criticised.

My last uni 'banned' term-time working, but students still worked. No one ever gets thrown out for working, unless they start missing classes or assessments.

Why is she not getting loans and grants? And why does she not get a job? Depending on her course she'd have free time to study and work.

My dad didn't give me any money when I went to uni, he helped me with buying furniture and moving which I appreciated a lot more.

University isn't just about getting a degree, it's about being independent and learning to provide for yourself.

Oh I get that the Gov, in its wisdom, demands parents contribute and so many do. I expect we shall as well. But I also expect my children to help themselves a bit and work in the summers before and during uni to save up for their beer/whatever money.

It just seems the OP's daughter is having a fair amount spent on her, holidays etc, and is not remotely interested ('has no inclination') to help towards funding anything. And by the sounds of it the OP isn't expecting her to contribute anything either.

It just seems that, generally and not just in regards to uni, from what I've seen on this thread and others that parents are expected, and expect, to continually fund their offspring. I was wondering if this is the new norm or do such parents actually, at some point, make the 'child' stand on their own two feet...

Agree totally Chunky with regard to the OP's DD. She is definitely incredibly lucky to have the holidays paid for as well!
Though I think that parents are now forced into contributing more than they used for university to due to the reasons I gave above. Plus we also obtained our university experience for free and therefore feel that if we can contribute then we will.
My DCs are expected to work in the summer holidays and during term time if they can get a job. My DC1 just graduated and had a job. DC2 about to start so we will see...

We have helped DD1 and 2 through university by paying all their hall fees in first year which included bills. In the second and third yeasr we paid most of their rent but they paid some and all their they also paid all the bills. They got part time jobs. Once they finished uni they were expected to fend for themselves we didn't contribute towards rent or anything except for occasionally sent some bits and pieces. We will be doing the same for DD3. We put some money in a couple of ISAs a few years ago to enable us to do this. Although I think some of DD3's rent will have to come out of our current account.

£250- £300 pcm

And no extras.

why can't your dd get a loan at under 18?
It is not legal to lend money to under 18s

I got£600pcm at uni starting 2002, ret paid and tuition fees paid. Also worked very hard all holidays and always worked during term time. Also had £6k in savings when I went.
I was wealthy by student standards but I didn't take it for granted always worked.

Crikey thoseof you giving your DC £100 per week on top of hall fees!! That sounds like a heck of a lot to me. I can't afford to contribute anything like that amount!Do they really need that much?DS is starting this time, at a RG uni on an engineering degree.He is living about a mile from campus so he will walk or cycle.He isn't into clubbing or drinking.I was thinking apart from food he wouldn't have that many expenses?

DD3 has budget for about £50 a week. That is for food, laundry and going out. She will spend more in Freshers week. She only drinks a little and doesn''t do clubbing.

It also grates on me that if you have two at university at once, when they do the means-testing for the second one's maintenance loan, they only knock a grand off your available income. (Disclaimer - that was true when I looked last year, haven't checked recently.)

So there is a gap which they expect parents to fill, but apparently they only expect you to give your first child £1000 pa, which will not fill the gap.

I have no idea how people manage. I don't have a spare £500 a month, let alone a spare grand when dd2 goes off to uni a year after dd1. Fortunately my kids have inherited some money from their great grandfather, and that will go a long way to supporting them.

AtiaoftheJulii I was going to ask what happens when you have two.
I always thought having my two close in age was wonderful. I will have a two year overlap. Gulp.
Perhaps this should be mentioned on those threads by young parents about the ideal gap between DCs

Once rent and bills are paid (by us) he will have loan and on top if that we will buy his clothes phone etc and an extra £100 a month So he will have 75 a week

I expected my DS to get a job whilst at University, or what would he have done all summer, just loafed around for 3 months. As it is he has a part time job in a supermarket which he has managed to work 35-40 hrs a week during the hols by staying in his Uni town.

Also he volunteered at 2 large music festivals so got free entry to them and enjoyed himself very much, managed to go on 2 holidays with friends this year. None of which he would have been able to do without his job.

He's at a RG Uni doing Physics so not an easy subject and has easily managed to do his job and get good grades.

We pay his rent, we said we would whether he got a job or not and he gets his student loan so it means his job money is his own for extras so he doesn't have to live so frugally and also he enjoys his work and is all the happier for it.