How much financial support do you give your DCs at uni?

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Just thinking ahead here, but just wondered how much financial support others give their children at uni? We have a friend who pays for DD's accommodation but not sure we could ever stretch that far. We've saved a bit here and there, but I'm now thinking we seriously need to start saving more as DD will be going in two years time.

People are making a clear factually based argument that may help some people make important decisions or at least investigate their options more thoroughly (eg remortgaging) - that isn't scaremongering.

Decor We also considered remortgaging, as the interest rate is better, and it would have added two years max to the mortgage for the fees.

If I were taking out a loan for a mortgage or a bank loan, I would want to know the constant interest rate across the term of the loan, plus the term as well. I would also want to know that the terms and conditions couldn't be changed, nor could the loan be sold on. If I wouldn't touch a student loan as an adult, why would I recommend that my son take one? There is no guarantee that it will be written off, and whilst a mortgage is long term, it will eventually go if you have a repayment one. I am unsure if the payments on a student loan even touch the interest, let alone the capital.

I know we are fortunate to have the choice that ds doesn't have to have a loan, but there are considerations when taking one, and parents and students need to do some digging before they sign up to one. It isn't scaremongering, it's getting people to realise there is a downside.

We pay the rent and money for basic living costs. Our son also has a part-time job. I benefited from going to university for free and had a grant plus money from my parents for living costs, so want to pay it forward.

Scaremongering is a bit strong.

We are not too bothered about being frugal. Its the way we have lived for years. We also dislike the idea of debt, other than the inevitable mortgage. Luckily we have one of those flexible mortgages which means we can defer paying back capital and indeed borrow more without too much effort. Friends who might like to do the same cannot, even if they earn more and appear wealthier, perhaps because are older or fear redundacy, will not have public sector pensions, have bigger mortgages, have more children, or perhaps because their expectations in terms of replacing cars, taking holidays etc are higher.

It is a personal thing. Yes it would be nice to have the spare cash, and yes for many some form of loan is inevitable. However this is a major investment decision and it needs thinking about.

It is unfair for the MN police to come out whinging about relevence and poverty.

My advice would be to minimise any borrowing at 4.6%, by a combination of parents pulling back and DC doing the same. And by making every effort to ensure that the course is the right one and appropriate.

I am not alone, and it is not unusual for less well off debt adverse parents and their DC to take on work to keep borrowing down. I suspect my own attitudes stem from my dad who came from real poverty where it was a matter of pride that you never had to borrow a cup of sugar and that your children had shoes to wear to school.

I also wonder about Martin Lewis. His advice that you may never need to pay the money back may be right for the individual, but is it really right? Should we be letting the Cambridge graduate off her/his loans simply because she/he married well and has never needed to work and at the same time be cutting care for the elderly. Education is a priviledge and should be as much about responsibilty as entitlement.

I don't think it's sustainable to continue to allow SAHPs to not pay back their loans, when they have high household incomes from their partners' jobs.

I have many female friends from Cambridge who never paid back their loans and never will, despite having household incomes far into six figures.

I also think that the debate of paying fees or not will become pretty much irrelevant to most families over the coming years, as fees start to increase with inflation. Within 5 years the anticipated fees are going to be 12k or more and as pp have said the accommodation is going up in price quickly. (Universities have to borrow money to finance new accommodation or get private sector involvement and very little affordable accommodation is being built.) Only a small fraction of families will be able to pay upfront from income, savings or remortgaging.

The continuing rise in cost of accommodation at university is unsustainable, IMO. I think students will increasingly want to stay living at home with their parents and that there will be all sorts of market adjustments as a consequence.

I agree that the price of accommodation has to stabilise.

And given all the talk about cutting immigration by cutting foreign student numbers this may well have a big effect, particularly on lower ranking universities in London (which are currently very reliant on foreign students).

Yes. I think the London accomodation providers will be fine. There is already a shift back to the era when it was normal to live in a hall (think YMCA, police section house, nurses home) when arriving in London to start your first job. The luxury stuff with ensuites will be perfect for many starting their PWC accountancy training. HMO legislation means that it is very hard to find larger shared houses anyway.

But elsewhere could be a different story.

I agree that more will live at home. Its part of the investment decision that needs to be made. If the quality of local courses is good, then a pretty obvious decision is to reduce borrowing by living at home. Or a frequent London pattern which is to spend your first year in hall and then commute. As this happens social life ought to be more centred around the University and less dependent on being in hall.

Yes it will be different but not out of line with current European practice. Or we start to copy the Americans and save into a College fund almost from birth.

There comes a point when the advantages (freedom) of living away from home to attend university are outweighed by the disadvantages (discomfort and cost). And extra freedom can also be acquired by living at home but having more spare cash to go out and do things. Living in an overpriced flea pit with no money to go out is not much fun.

I'm not sure re a ceiling on rent prices, as if these rents are being met by ever inflating levels of student loan debt and many do not see these debts as 'real' then the game of pretend may just carry on and on!

But for most students the maintenance loans only cover a fraction of living expenses i.e. much of the rents is paid out of real money, rather than loans.

Our company eldest will start at college/uni in 2018. Our plan is that we'll pay what we'd pay at home - rent, bills a d something towards food. Things like phone etc they'll have to finance - gi en local pro vision it's likely they'll stay local it might want to move out - wouldn't blame them.

I think the point made upthread by Abraiid2 about paying it forward (or is it payback for the free education we received!?) is a good way to think about it which hadn't previously occurred to me ...

I benefited from going to university for free and had a grant plus money.

But from the 1990s onwards this was not the case. I had to pay towards my own university costs. Within a few years many of the parents of current students will be from a generation which themselves had to take student loans (albeit not as large as the present ones).

:) Grumpy

I went for free in the 80s, and then took an old style loan for my PGCE, which I cleared completely. Paying for ds is just making sure that he has the same as we did.

Sadly, it's not possible for him to live at home as we are in different countries!

On the subject of students living at home - using my dd as an example - lucky to even get a place at vet school, they don't really get a choice where they go. I think you're very lucky if the university/universities within reach of home actually do the course you want.

I don't think you cen generalise on how much teeagers have at unviersity from their parents as parents' income (and generosity) differs so widely. My parents ensured we graduated debt free even though we didn't get the full grant (in those days) due to parental income so they made up our income to the amount of the full grant. so far the older children have graduated debt free (I was paying school fees already anyway so the pain just continued) and I hope to fund the twins next year. I am expect that to cost £9k fees each, about £7k rent each and about £150 each per week. So roughly £50k a year over 3 years -£150k.

I am pretty certain they will earn enough to have to pay back the loans and anyway why should we burden the state?.

There are lots of reasons I fully fund them 1. I can afford to 2. as someone said up thread it's better than paying 40% to the state in inheritance tax when I die 3. we don't like debt as a family, don't even really use credit cards, buy cars for cash, pay down mortgages as soon as possbile etc 4. psychologically not having it hanging over you is just as importnat as whether 4.6% interest is reasonable 5. I sdon't trust the state an inch - they have already changed the loan rules and no doubt will again. 6 To obtain a home loan these days you have to set out all kinds of things - eg how much you spend on meals out, student loan repayments etc so being debt free can make it easier to buy a property sooner.

However I recognise all the downsides too - that they may never have had to pay it back, that they may not be as invested in the degree as mother is paying etc. On balance I feel happy with my decision to fund it.

The £150 a week on top of rent is fair and in fact quite generous. There will be some students with loads of money and some with hardly any. We all just do the best that we can.

The rent for ds this year is about £3800, and even in hall it was just over £4k. Where will they be living for it to be £7k? I suppose the private halls might be that much.

There seem to be lots of places with halls around the.£6k mark. DS last year was in accommodation which cost around £6.3k. Yes it was a private hall but it was not one of the 3 (cheaper) places on campus he'd applied to. Private rents are typically £100 plus, but contracts are for 48 weeks. DS this year is paying £105 pw, therefore around £5k.

I've just done a recent round of open days with my DC and halls of residence are often charging around 6k ( catered). Some more - there is a particularly pricey block in Birmingham that is all penthouse views and super speed lifts. It was a fair bit more than 7k IIRC. But as DD said 'you'd have to be a real dick to insist on living here'.

DS's £6.3k last year was uncatered!

Comments in remortgaging v student loan interesting

We are currently remortgaging. The interest rate is under 2%. We are not doing it to fund DS uni but if that were a consideration it looks like a very good deal to me.

I just thought I would comment despite not having DCs at university as I'm sure there are a lot of parents weeping at the size of the contribution they may have to make!

It is completely possible to work whilst doing a healthcare/lab based course. I earned around £3000 a year doing bank work for the NHS as a healthcare assistant. Many of my younger friends without children earned much more. Yes, it is impossible to work during placement, but you on are placement an average of 21 weeks a year. You have 12 weeks off a year, plus 10 weeks in university. Even 1 Sunday shift a fortnight during uni blocks will see you picking up £360 a month.

So parents, please do not panic! By all means contribute if you can/want to. But many students survive without. I saved up £8k before my degree due to the horrors I heard about finances. I left uni having saved up another £3000. My partner only earns £17000 a year, my bursary (not including childcare allowance) was £540 a month, £170 more than a childless student.

On costs my daughter stayed here (when student fees were only £1k a year so a while back) and I don't know here my twins will get into but Bristol is probably on their list. So this hall their sister was at is
£7,826.28 per year if you want catered and en suite.
it is about £7k for single room no basin - www.bristol.ac.uk/accommodation/undergraduate/residences/wills/

The Durham en suite rooms are £7300 a year. I think they will both apply to Durham although of course may not get in so my estimate of about £7k each a year for accommodation is probably not too off the mark.