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Higher education

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

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Original poster

Accommodation.....how many of you parents out there are able to pay for this?

67 replies

skyblue11 · 02/10/2013 21:09

Most of my colleagues say they give their child the maintenance and pay the accommodation, there's no way we have a spare 5,100 or even 4,500! She will be struggling and have a huge overdraft and I'm scared for her.

OP posts:

cricketballs · 12/10/2013 20:12

My DS will only get the minimum, but we don't have the disposable income to give him more than £30-£40 per week so very concerned

cricketballs · 12/10/2013 20:24

In fact we have dismissed one uni purely due to their accommodation costs

Original poster

skyblue11 · 12/10/2013 20:27

cricketballs but are you paying the accommodation on top of the £30-£40 per week?

OP posts:

cricketballs · 12/10/2013 20:49

no - his loan has to pay for that. Our rent for home is high, we have a disabled DS and whilst we have on paper a good income, in reality rent, council tax, bills, my student loan etc means that whilst we can help him to the amount I stated, we just don't have the spare cash to help any further without it impacting seriously on our other DS

happilyconfused · 12/10/2013 20:56

Accommodation can vary widely around universities. Non-catered with no en-suite is the cheapest option. Some of my students now factor in the accommodation costs when choosing a university. Some parents may may pay for accommodation only and others parents may a regular allowance and others make no contribution. Going to university is a big decision not to be taken lightly.

cricketballs · 12/10/2013 20:58

to be honest I feel terrible moaning given our income; but whilst it looks good on paper, as we live in a high cost area we don't have more disposable income than my sister whose income is far lower but lives in a cheaper area and gets support.

I know I will get flamed but From the grants, bursaries etc that are available I would imagine that lower income families have more chance of affording uni than those of us stuck in the middle ground. From the info we had from today's open day if you are on low income then you can get the full amount of maintenance plus a grant total amount in excess of £8000 in the 1st year - my DS will get £3600 and we are supposed to supplement the rest..we can't afford a week holiday in the UK so how are we supposed to afford to supplement £4500 a year?

Original poster

skyblue11 · 12/10/2013 21:13

My point exactly cricketballs where does it come from, I suppose a lot will get an overdraft but that on top of their already huge fees and loans? It's madness!

OP posts:

MissMarplesBloomers · 12/10/2013 21:13

I think any student who is planning on going to Uni has to accept they have to get a job during 6th form & save like stink to help fund their education.

Its bloody hard but its investment in their future.

Have you all read this?

morethanpotatoprints · 12/10/2013 21:15

I couldn't pay any of it I'm afraid.
Mine had to do it for themself and were working from 16, student loans and they applied for grants.

MissMarplesBloomers · 12/10/2013 21:24

Yep mine too morethan

Her dad has reluctantly agreed to give her an allowance which has eased things & she has saved a fair bit through work. She qualified for maximum grant & got a small bursary as I'm an LP on low income, but its still tight.

Thankfully she is not a drinker or clubber so if she is careful she should be OK. The price of halls might seem highbut they usually include a lot fo things that you woud have to pay extra for in a flat. All utilities, cleaning & a basic room insurance are covered by her rent.

They should be able to manage on about £50 pw with lots of pasta suppers!

Milliways · 14/10/2013 16:23

We are paying DS's rent, but if we didn't he would be ok now as he has just landed a £50/week GCSE tutoring job and he has worked since before he was 16 and managed to save c£6k.

If he had no savings/earnings, his loan would not cover his rent.

Both ours knew that if our circumstances changed we would not pay their rent, but fortunately we are able at the moment.

dementedma · 21/10/2013 21:07

Dds accommodation is horrendous. A room in uncatered halls is over 450 a month.Her loan doesn't cover it so we have to pay 150 a month to top up the rent, and then all of her food and living expenses. She is trying to get a job but nothing so far.
Don't know how long we can keep it up.she eats a lot of pasta but is already losing weight as we can't afford to give her much. Bloody halls also have no freezers so I can't bulk cook and give her soups, casseroles etc,

amumthatcares · 23/10/2013 21:10

DD qualified for £4,300 loan, no grant and this just covers her rent. We give her £50 a week and she also takes out £25 a week from money put into an account that was opened when she was born, which now has 3K in it but not for very much longer

I totally agree, it is the families with the bordering incomes that suffer most. DD's SF was based on income from 2 years ago (a one off higher earning year for self employed DH). Our income is much lower now but we are still expected to be able to support her based on that one year. Apart from the laon, if she had qualified for just £50 grant, she would have qualified for £1000 reduction in rent this first year, plus an additional £1000 for her to live on, from the uni. She missed out big time Hopefully, next year her award will be higher based on our lower income.

goinggetstough · 24/10/2013 11:30

amum if your income has dropped by more than 15% then you can be reassessed. At the bottom of page 2.
www.sfengland.slc.co.uk/media/559149/sfe_pff2_1314_d.pdf

amumthatcares · 24/10/2013 21:30

going thank you. I was aware of this and did consider it. The reason I didn't go ahead was because initially DD firmed at another uni that didn't offer any bursary and so didn't think it was worth the hassle. She then changed in clearing and the £2000 bursary was then available at the new uni. I didn't know if it was too late now to be re-assessed? Or whether, if we were and was successful, if the new uni would still offer the bursary .

BananaHammocks · 27/11/2013 20:32

When I was at uni a few years ago my loan covered my accommodation, I lived on money from a part-time job, savings from part-time job during A Levels, an overdraft and £40 a month from my parents! They also paid for my books and train tickets home (£12 every month or two).

It got tight at times and I got to know the Tesco Value range very well but it taught me how to budget, how to enjoy myself without spending much and I benefit from it now as it taught me not to be a food/clothes/whatever snob.

£100 per week just for food/clothes/books/travel/socialising sounds insane!

MABS · 30/11/2013 15:13

dd is in Newcastle, thought it would be cheaper, (we are south cost) but no! her catered accom is £130 per week that we pay and use some of loan and we give her £60 per week for extra stuff. so she cost us approx. £200 per week :( she got basic maintenance loan which pays some of the £200 per week costs

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