Student finance/loan when staying at home, does this sound reasonable?

[NicoAndTheNiners]

Dd has decided to go to the local uni in sept and will be living at home.

I'm quite happy to provide free board and lodging as it will be no different to how things are now. So she won't have rent to pay and won't have food to buy. She currently has a £50 a month allowance which isn't going to cut it at uni.

She obviously will need the loan for the 9k a year tuition fees. I believe she's entitled to around a 4K a year cost of living loan (household income is 80k so she will get the minimum).

Am I right in thinking she may as well take the 4K a year because when it comes to paying it back it won't make any difference to how much she pays back each month. Though it will take longer to repay, but she may not repay it all anywAy?

I can't afford to subsidise a decent student lifestyle, not really. Could potentially give her £100 a month and pay her annual train pass but that's it.

4K a year for clothes and socialising sounds a lot but I could encourage her to try and save some. I want her to try and get used to budgeting so will insist she starts paying for everything herself such as contact lenses, highlights, mobile phone which I currently pay for on top of her £50 a month allowance.

Just realised it's £3220 not 4K she can get. Should still be enough for a student with no living costs though?

What sort of course is it? Could she have a part time job? That's how I subsidised myself when I was at uni

Architecture so not sure how intense the course is likely to be but yes I'd like to think she could get a part time job.

Have just done a calculation and it works out at £59 a week. I'd be happy to buy her an annual rail card for her so she wouldn't have travel to pay for. And at £59 a week she will have to realise that actually maybe she can't afford highlights or she will have to have highlights done at the hairdressing college, etc like I did when I was a student. And realise that she can't have a Starbucks every day and buy a dress from Jack Wills, etc. And if she does want that level of stuff she will need a job.

What course is she doing!!surely a weekend job would be possible??!

£60 a week I that ends up being. My sons have £150 a week but that has to cover food as well as going out, books, travel, clothes , phones etc (and what I pay them is very generous - they have no student loans at all).

You lare right that under current rules (they might change) whatever your loan you pay 9% of salary over £25k so if she were on say £100k (lawyer in London after 3 years of qualification for example) that would be £6750 a year of repayment. If on £30k that would be £450 a year repayment. If under £25k always nothing paid back etc

Most (if not all) university students here in Ireland work pat time the whole way through university

Remember she will need stuff for her course too (books/materials/maybe software?) so that will come out of it, too.

My ds lives away from home, so it's different for him, but effectively I pay for his accommodation (which includes all bills) and he lives on his student loan. He gets the minimum because of our household income. He worked during the summer holidays and earned good money, and he lives pretty cheaply. But as well as food, books etc he also has to pay for clothes and his mobile phone. Plus going out. I have offered him more money but he's turned me down ! So he's living on a bit under £100 per week but has to pay for food, toiletries etc out of that. Your dd sounds as though she will be fine.

I lived off a £3k loan 14 years ago and worked temping in holidays and part time at uni to add to that. My parents paid my accommodation but nothing else. I ran a car and saved a few thousand in that time; however I didn't have an expensive lifestyle.

In what world isn't £50 a month allowance going to cut it at uni. ???
If she has rent (and presumably things like wifi and utility and food bills) all paid for her, then this is just 'spending money' or pocket money.

Surely, if she feels she needs more than that, then she can get a job like other students do.

That said, you are right about the fact she might as well take the student maintenance loan, as the repayments are based on the person's income, and not the amount they owe.

Backforgood
GBP 50 per month isn't going to be enough to cover books. My ds managed to get some of his second-hand and they were still over GBP 20 each.

Am I right in thinking she may as well take the 4K a year because when it comes to paying it back it won't make any difference to how much she pays back each month. Though it will take longer to repay, but she may not repay it all anyway?

Exactly.

I would think that the loan for living expenses should be plenty, my only caveat would be materials. Some subjects require no books or materials but others do and I would think architecture was one of them.

Also your calculation is based on 52 weeks whereas university terms add up to about 30 weeks. Even if she is unable to work during term time a summer / holiday job should be doable.

If I've read this correctly, she's going to a local uni, living at home with no outgoings? So just the same as school/college?
Apart from books/materials/train pass, what does she need money for? Socially?

Forget about the £9K fees; they get paid off in small amounts when she's earning in the future. I know parents who could afford to pay the whole tuition fees off in one go, but wouldn't. It makes no financial sense.

Both my DC are at uni. DD is in her final year. She uses her (minimum) loan to pay most of her accommodation and we top it up (£1400) a year, which we have put away over the past 10 years. This is the best decision we made! So we just pay £50 a week into her account for food, toiletries, etc. and pay for her phone and train tickets home once or twice a term. She manages perfectly well on this set-up, and has a p/t job in the holidays. at home, to boost her personal spending.
I made it clear we won't be funding her social life, and she works all hours during this time and fortunately loves it. She is doing a fine art degree and any materials needed have been pretty cheap/subsidised.

DS is closer to home and comes back most weekends (homebird). He survives on £30 a week for food and the same set-up as DD for accommodation.

Sorry, should have added, if she takes the maintenance loan she'll be fine, almost rolling in it, compared to most students living away.

In what world isn't £50 a month allowance going to cut it at uni. ???

The real one. The world where students have books and travel and all sorts of related costs.

That's less than £12.50 a WEEK. Of course it's not enough.

grenadezombie it's not £12.50 per uni week.

Oh well that ok then?

£50 a month equates to less than £12.50 a week. Nobody stated uni weeks or otherwise.

Shanghai
I have dc1 who has graduated and dc2 in her 2nd year, plus other dns recently graduated / at university.
When they are paying for their own expenses, you'll find many students don't go out buying tons of books, they study in the library.
So the £17 - £18 per week for term times that £50 pm equates to (if OP is giving it for 12months of year?) is plenty, even if it might be helpful to have it front-loaded a bit, if their dc likes the idea of buying books, as no student goes out and buys books every week.

There are also something like 10 weeks plus to work after A-levels before University even starts, to give them a nice buffer to begin with, before you begin to think about a job during term time.

My dc is one of 8 sharing her house (in her 2nd year). All of them work in PT jobs at Uni. One has 2 jobs. The majority of them have jobs at home that they pick up during the holidays too. It is how student life works for most students.

I have a dd going to uni in September too. She will also be living at home and commuting into London. She will get the maintenance loan and currently we are debating 2 scenarios where she keeps the loan and uses it for everything bar bills and food or gives it to us and we pay for everything - she’s eldest of our dc so this would maintain the status quo but maybe doesn’t allow her to grow up a bit more (something she resists but we encourage!) Anyhow she will definitely be taking it as her travel alone will soon add up even before books & stationary etc!

Just re your own dd op - check how many years she’s able to claim the maintenance loan for as I know that architecture is a long, slightly more complicated course than most and I also know that for medicine you can only claim the loan for 3 yrs not the 5 yrs you actually take to graduate.

You just can't generalise. Mine have £150 a week for food and other costs at univesrity (I pay for food in holidays but I keep up the same allowance then) (and pay their rent separately)( whch is about £650 a month. It is quite generous but even so some have more money. Others will have a lot less.

Like Lumpy I wanted all our 5 children to be in the same position so as I had paid my older 2 childrn's £1k a year fees and all other costs I am paying the younger too even though their fee is £9250 a year not £1k.

lumpy76. I think if she does the part 2 straight after the part 1 (so years 4 and 5 straight after the undergraduate part) it counts as one course and they can claim the maintenance loan for this.

That's what google seemed to suggest but I will start a thread to check I think because I didn't know that about drs and now I'm worried!

Back for Good
Agree that it is useful to have money-front loaded. Ds had 500 per month for the first 2/3 months and is now on half that.

Why doesn't she have a part-time job? She could earn £250 a month for an 8 hour weekly shift in a supermarket.

She should try out for any bursaries/scholarships at her chosen university. Some are very generous.

DD gets tuition loan, maximum London living allowance (£6k out of £11k goes on lodging), £4k bursary which doesn't need to be paid back and works part-time for an events company on a flexible basis. She regularly applies for any scholarships or small bursaries that become available and has had a couple of £500 awards.

By the way anyone with a child over 18 by July jobs for Wimbledon fortnight can be applied for by about tomorrow I think it is. My twins just put theirs in.