Paying uni fees- anyone done it?

[homebythesea]

We are planning on paying DS fees come September (yes I know it's not advised by Martin Lewis etc etc,). I just wonder what the process is- do we get an invoice from the Uni and if so when?

[LoanMumorother]

I think it depends on your university. Some of them get an amount from the government to get the difference between what the university course (and they can cost more than 9k per person per year ) (whether that be through student loan or paying privately ) . So either way have to do the Student loan forms, even if what you are claiming is £0. It is the system which says you are officially on that course iyswim. Have been through this - feel free to PM) - MY DC is having to fill the forms out for next year for £0. Some universities I believe you might be able to ignore the forms , others not. I can only speak for DS - he had to do the forms.

[LoanMumorother]

I also have a moral issue about taking public funds when we can afford to pay.

Hurrah - we took the decision that given we could afford to - sod Martin Money man - we will pay and that money goes into the pot. (does that sound odd - maybe)

[scaryteacher]

LoanMum fill out what forms? I didn't fill out any forms for ds, just contacted the Finance Office and told them we would be paying the fees, no loans. It's all done online for ds's uni hence I stick it on my card via his campus connect account.

[scaryteacher]

Loanmum we didn't fill out anything at all for the SLC, as he wasn't having any type of loan at all...why would you?

[goingmadinthecountry]

If I could have afforded it, I'd have paid for my dcs - the new system is beyond awful in my opinion. Dd1 just has fees (we paid living expenses) and her 27k debt is now over30k and rising at £100pcm. After a year out she's doing an MSc (10.5k PG loan plus Career Development loan for living expenses) then she'll do an LPC - another 10k. She's already started paying it back despite being on gap year wages. It's utter crap. And I have 4 children - no. 2 is already on the slippery slope to debt.

[LoanMumorother]

Ah Ok - there is a discrepancy between DS's termly invoice and what we pay (i.e. the full £9k) . by filling out the forms the extra bit is taken care of. The other thing (mea culpa) Ds is SpLd and needs to fill out the forms to prove he is at the university (no money involved )

I think it probably varies between universities - just giving my experience of the one DC is at. Sorry if I have given a false impression.

[fakenamefornow]

Can I ask are there any tax implications for doing this? In that I think you have to declare gifts over ....3k... or is it 7k? Would this be counted as a gift?

[LoanMumorother]

I believe not

[LoanMumorother]

it's 3k I think - but I don't believe university contributions count towards any tax liability

[homebythesea]

It's not a gift unless you give it to the student who then pays surely? We see it as an extension of paying school fees - and at 9k a year compared to 9k per term we will actually feel better off

[LoanMumorother]

" and at 9k a year compared to 9k per term we will actually feel better off smile "

True, but don't forget that does not include living expenses . (if you wish to pay for those also)

[homebythesea]

loanmum of course- we intend to give him roughly the equivalent of the maximum maintenance grant minus rent for his "pocket money". It's a very difficult one to balance- no need to be in penury but also don't want him to be ostentatiously better off than most of his peers

[Floralnomad]

My DS took no student finance , we paid the fees / living expenses and he had a pt job - he finished his degree with no debt and a healthy savings pot to start his working life and he really appreciates it .

[Needmoresleep]

The problem with Martin Money Man is that he simply crunches the numbers and takes no account of individual time and non-monetary preferences. People vary a lot in their willingness to save now in order to spend later and assign different values to different commodities and experiences.

We too believe in a small state. I am always a bit about posters who will argue that DC should take loans as they are cheap money, but elsewhere complain that the state does not have enough money to provide proper care for the elderly, etc, etc.

We would like our DC to have choices when they graduate including being able to do, if they want, as we have done and:

1. Buy their own house
   
2. Live in London
   
3. Work in the public sector
   

Hard enough anyway, but near impossible if you also have loan repayments. It is important to me that DC start their independent lives with a clean sheet. So something I would prefer to spend my money on.

We are lucky enough to be able to afford it, but not so rich that it does not involve foregoing things that others might consider esential. Equally I have known others who are less well off, take low paid second jobs (supermarket shelf stacking, sports coach) to allow their children to leave Unversity with a lower loan burden. You can number crunch all you like but at the end of the day it is about how you choose to use the money (and time) you have to buy things you want.

Interestingly, and in reference to Homebythesea's point about giving DC the same amount of money as their peers, is that this seems to depend on which peer group they choose. DS' friendship group is reasonably international though oddly diverse, made up of British born ethnics, British school educated overseas students, third country nationals (ie with ex-pat parents not living in the country of their birth and coming from international schools), and more. They all seem to work very hard, and though some come from families who are clearly very well off, don't seem to spend much. Its quite possible that students on loans, seeking a "university experience" spend more. Though this may balance out as DS's friends seem willing to pay a premium to live close to the University library. Again, to a large extent it is about choices, rather than about the total sum of money you have.

[esornep]

Again, to a large extent it is about choices, rather than about the total sum of money you have.

But I think it is important to bear in mind that for the vast majority of families in the UK it just isn't possible to pay 9k fees per year plus contribute substantially to 8-9k living expenses. This is not just about making choices; many families couldn't raise the money required for 3 years' university education, or could only do so by e.g. re-mortgaging and sacrificing pension savings.

Yes, some families could choose to prioritise university funding over other spending and choose not to, just as some families could pay for private education but choose not to, but many (most) families have little choice but to take the loans offered.

Since I work in academia, and it was clear to me years ago that student fees were going to increase substantially, I have saved for university education from my children's birth (as US parents do). But I count myself as very fortunate that I can save quite a bit of money after paying for essential expenses. The cost of living in London/SE is so high that it is very difficult for many families to save up amounts sufficient to cover university costs.

[blueskyinmarch]

We plan to pay DD2's fees when she goes to uni. I will read this thread properly when I get time as there appears to be lots of goid info.

DD1 went to a Scottish uni and as a Scottish resident we paid nothing so she has no debts. I want DD2 to be the same even though she is going to an English uni. I hadn't really though much about how it is paid. She goes to a private school and I think I assumed the fees would be billed monthly in the same way.

[Tattieboggle]

We did this for all of our lot as overseas students and we paid up front for the whole year as their was a discount involved. We'd just phone the office and pay by debit card.

[Tattieboggle]

Interestingly, and in reference to Homebythesea's point about giving DC the same amount of money as their peers, is that this seems to depend on which peer group they choose. DS' friendship group is reasonably international though oddly diverse, made up of British born ethnics, British school educated overseas students, third country nationals (ie with ex-pat parents not living in the country of their birth and coming from international schools), and more

Personally we couldn't have cared less about what others had. We knew we wanted the children to be comfortably housed, warm, well fed, and to have a life that was of the standard they were used to so we worked out what we thought was a good monthly amount to have and that was it.

University life doesn't have to be the school of hard knocks.

[Needmoresleep]

esornep, I perhaps put it badly but don't think we really disagree. I believe we are seeing a move to a US pattern, with some parents putting aside "college funds" with a parallel trend (anecdotal) of less well off students taking loans for the fees, but choosing to go to their local University, with both them and their parents taking on extra jobs to help ensure the debt burden at the end is as low as possible. Fine if your local University is good, and here Londoners have a real advantage. But when visiting my mother I am always surpised at how many children simply go on to the local new-University provision, or the bigger University 30 miles away, without really considering other options.

The question of whether to pay University fees is interesting for us. We live in an area where housing is cheaper because state school provision is poor. We then bought our way out of state system, whilst others found religion, rented in prime catchments, or tutored for the 11+. Probably the main reason we will pay is that we are used to paying, and don't mind deferring spending money on ourselves/our house/etc for a while longer. This is not an option for others. They have borrowed for fees and now need to set money aside to pay off the mortgage/pay into pensions. Or have three or more children. Oddly though we would have had more money if DC had been to state schools, I think we would have found it harder to start paying now, especially if we had increased our mortgage to live in a better catchment or were paying for expensive season tickets,

Despite MN orthodoxy, I think Martin money-man only tells part of the story and leaves out the different, often non monetary, values people put on different outcomes.

[Needmoresleep]

Tattieboggle

1. We pay by credit card as they don't penalise so a chance to pick up CC benefits!
   

1. Expectations vary. Anecdotally en-suite accomodation often books out first, whilst boarding school kids, who might be assumed to be better off are often happy with the cheapest option because they are already used to similar. DS is certainly not going through a school of hard knocks and has what he needs. But he and his often well-off friends don't have a clubbing life style. DD too is likely to opt for cheaper accomodation because it is closer to the sports fields rather than newer and more expensive student housing in the lively city centre. I guess again it is choices, and what is available. We may choose to have DS leave University debt free, but we don't want to restrict our own spending in order to fund his bar bill. Money for additional spend, including summer holidays, needs to be earned by him.

[Tattieboggle]

Needmoresleep.

I can see my comment about school of hard knocks sounded rather grumpy and a bit like a lecture. It wasn't intended to. I think I should have said kids don't have to have it hard at Uni in order to learn about life and become responsible adults - which is what we're generally told needs to happen.

None of my children worked when at Uni, or Flying School which we also funded, because they were far away from home and they either came home during the holidays or travelled to places it was difficult to get to from where we live.

Only one of them ever stayed in Uni accommodation and they only stuck that out for one semester before we moved them to their own apartment. It just wasn't for them. They'd all grown up with a brother who's severely autistic and they wanted something a little bit less exciting and noisy for a change 😜 The rest did home stay with a local family before also moving into their own place. Two of them we're happy to stay on their own from there on in and the other two ended up having a friend share with them.

I've no idea what the kids spent their money on because it was theirs to spend so if it went on a social life then so be it. They didn't actually have enough money to have a wild social life, they had enough not to have money worries and to get out and about, and as long as they stayed away from drugs and got very good results we were happy.

[scaryteacher]

Fakenamefornow There are no tax implications for doing this
Payments to help with living costs
There’s no Inheritance Tax on gifts to help with other people’s living costs if they’re made to, for example:
an ex-husband, ex-wife or former civil partner
a relative who’s dependent on them because of old age, illness or disability
a child (including adopted and step-child) under 18 or in full-time education

Thus seems a good way of avoiding any possible IHT later on!

[TaIkinPeace]

I'd be interested to hear whether OP has run this idea past their investment adviser.
Just that those who do have the funds to make such a decision will be balancing ROI and taxable basis over 10 year windows.

I am genuinely unconvinced that it would be worth it even for the ultra rich.

[Tattieboggle]

Talkin, its hardly a fortune and I doubt the ultra rich would even notice it had been spent.

[homebythesea]

We have cash in the bank Talkin no need to consult anyone!