Are all of you saving for children's university maintenance grant contributions?

[worldsworststepfordwife]

I’m not too late to the party am I? I have sort of heard Martin Lewis say on telly it’s not the course fees you need to be concerned about it’s the expected maintenance contribution that should concern you, but I’ve never really looked at what he’s talking about until I was talking to my 14yo on Sat luckily she’s my only Uni capable one as I discovered that if she was going to university this September the minimum we should give her is £450 a month.

Is that not a shit load of money??!! Also it nowhere near covers all her maintenance she would still rack up extra debt with maintenance loans then I read that there’s a general agreement that the minimum contribution plus maximum grant combined isn’t enough to live on, that there’s a shortfall of £170/month so a lot of parents contribute more!!

I gather as well that this whole situation is deliberately not publicised

But anyway I’ve got 4 years to save £20k lucky me

How are you all tackling this?

Presumably BREXIT will impact the status of uk students looking to study in other EU countries
It will. But some countries eg Germany offer free tuition regardless of whether you’re an EU student or not. And some British students with dual nationality will still be able to take advantage of free EU tuition. At least 5 million Brits are entitled to an Irish passport before you even consider other types of heritage.

Yes but to study in Ireland there is still extortionate accommodation costs, especially in Dublin and I don’t believe there are maintenance loans and jobs in some areas are hard to find. So stuffed either way.

I don’t mean this to sound harsh (honestly) but if your DC is struggling or would like more money to live on they’ll need to plan to get a weekend job while they’re at uni! I and most of my friends did. I worked in a shop (a fashion chain) so when it was the holidays I transferred back to my home city’s store (also a big uni city so there were lots going home from there too iyswim). It was standard, they loved student staff. The job was great and it paid my rent. Also meant I had less time at the weekends to just spend money! Graduated with a 1st so it didn’t impact my ability to study around it. Still had plenty of good nights out etc with my friends, didn’t really miss the weekend visits home that lots of my peers had, there are plenty of holidays. As I say I realise this is going to sound a bit harsh and simplistic but it is a good way to top up ££s at uni.

I was fortunate enough to be able to retrain into a better paying career, so we're not saving as such but our income will cover the difference. DC not at uni yet so in the meantime we're massively overpaying the mortgage so we can remortgage for a lower monthly amount later on.

DC has been advised to consider her uni options carefully. Cost of accommodation will be a factor, so whilst we wouldn't insist on somewhere cheaper, if there's two or three decent choices in terms of course then cost will come into it at that point. Also uni is a means to an end, if she doesn't sure of her future plans, she should consider postponing until she is more sure what she wants to do. Also consider apprenticeships or other routes into a career.

We live rurally, the nearest uni is an hour's drive each way and longer on public transport. So living at home won't be an option for her unless she does one of the few very specific degrees that are offered via our local college.

It's something we definitely had to plan for, and I consider myself (and dc) very fortunate that we've found a solution.

Both my children are doing degrees that are specific necessary for their chosen jobs. If they weren’t I wouldn’t hesitate encouraging them into an apprenticeship. The apprentices at my work are paid in the mid £20 thousands to start and some have been promoted within a year or two are are paid well over £30k with good support and training and a career path (civil service).

Yes but to study in Ireland there is still extortionate accommodation costs
You could get an Irish passport then study in Poland if you wanted to.

I will use savings to help DC's so they do not have to work much during term time and lose study time. Just wondering if it would count as deprivation of assets of ever I needed social care or if Jeremy Corbyn would plan to tax what I had given under his inheritance tax plans

I will use savings to help DC's so they do not have to work much during term time and lose study time

Oh very funny I've never known a student miss study time due to working a few hours, it's usually pissing it down the loo.

@magpiefeather - totally agree with you there. Completely agree that getting part time job is a good thing and I will be encouraging my daughter to do so. Kids can't expect their parents to fund 100% without them getting of their arses and making an effort to contribute!

They can make the effort to contribute by working over the three month summer break could easily make enough to top up the loan to reasonable amounts (plus the tax rebate when it is getting towards Christmas).
Quite often those few hours a week during term time get pushed up by the employers especially when it gets near Christmas and there are those first semester exams approaching (DD had six papers last January)

I spent every summer working and would save between 1-2k and then I worked every weekend in a restaurant. My parents kindly paid for my rent and the rest I funded myself! It’s possible to work while at uni!! University was “free” when I went early 00’s I only had registration fees at the start of the year though which were 800-1000. I paid that myself. No loans or grants.

University fees in the UK are ridiculous.

Yes, and they're even worse here in the US! I opened an investment account specifically for university costs when DD was six months old and DH opened one for DS. Even with 18 years worth of savings, they'll probably both need to work and take out loans. DH won't pay off his graduate school loans until he's 60!

I'd strongly advise parents of even young children to start putting something aside if you can as I think it's only going to get worse in the UK. If they don't end up using it for university, it'll be a nice nest egg.

Some courses don’t get the long summer to earn for the Michaelmas term.

I don’t mean this to sound harsh

your post is nothing more than commom sense - and yes I recognise there are a couple of uni's and a very limited number of courses where working during term time is not practicable.

However no one is forcing anyone to head, lemming like yes that is a bit harsh , straight onto Uni from A level. DS2 heads off next month after a gap year mainly spent working and has saved a fair amount. So whilst we will top up his limited maintenance loan to a reasonable extent we have also agreed with him that if he wants the highest cost super swish halls of residence he can make up the differential.

Hall costs as some have already pointed can vary hugely between Unis for essentially the same standard of accommodation. At least £2k differential for DS1 between his firm and insurance Unis.

Whilst not necessarily the easiest option to access when it comes to relatively low living costs Oxford and Cambridge are probably hard to beat.

I am just glad we have a 4 year age gap between children, uni wasn't something we thought of when we planned it that way as we were thinking of what we could afford at the time but it's something I'd advise new parents to think about.

We pay a monthly amount into an ISA for our son. We will then see what he needs when he is older. Deposit on house, uni, car that sort of thing.

"DS2 heads off next month after a gap year mainly spent working and has saved a fair amount."

dd is also taking a gap year to work & save - she's planning to have saved at least enough to top up the minimum maintenance loan (which is all she'll get) to average accommodation cost at her university for each of four years plus something towards her semester abroad. We will then give her a monthly allowance & which she can top up with savings/earnings if she wishes.

She'll be doing a STEM subject with high contact hours (though nothing like nursing or clinical years in medicine) but lots of students on the course work part time & she expects to also.

I was at uni 4 years ago and got the minimum maintenance grant of around 4.5k and £50 per month from my parents and I managed fine. If you haven't already you should starting talking to your son about money management and budgeting now so that he knows how to survive on minimal funds. Before going to uni I knew I would need a part time job so prepared my CV over tge summer and was ready to hand out CVs on my first day at uni and started a job for 12 hours per week pretty quickly. Working part time and staying in the cheapest accommodation available ( around £70 per week) I was able to manage and even ended up being able to save a bit of money by working full time during the holidays. A lot of people I met at uni were working to support themselves so I don't think you should be worried about funding his life at uni. Just make it clear that he should expect to work while studying and try to get him some summer jobs before he starts uni so he has some previous experience to help him get a job when he starts uni.

My son is off to Durham in September and I will not be giving him £450 at all. He needs to get a job and work alongside his academic work. Yes he has got all his Loans/Grants in place, but it is simply not feasible to expect parents to pay £450 p/m, especially if like me, am a single parent working long hours to support ALL my children.

Is there any financial help for children of low income families? £450 a month is heaps. And what about children whose parents don't care (as frankly that happens and its not the child's fault) I thought grants and loans were supposed to ensure children from all backgrounds could go to uni

@worldsworststepfordwife I think I live in the same place as you! I went to Uni aged 30, 3 kids and house to pay for. I worked extra hours on a weekend, I had too otherwise would not of managed. I had no financial help off anybody to help me, which is why I know you can go to uni, get a job and still pass. I work in The NHS, but there are plenty of opportunity's here other than the ones you mentioned.

We are in the US and my dd lined up her summer job before she graduated from High School. I know she's saved at least 3k so far (but she told me that a few weeks ago). She is frugal and hard working so will definitely be doing her share.

@fiftiesmum no excuses why snowflake children cannot work during the week whilst at uni. And behave being goady with your Jeremy Corbin dramatics. No one is here to discuss that. You are encouraging your kids to be lazy dependant adults brought up with a sense of entitlement,

I would never have even considered asking my parents to top up my student loan. I got the minimum grant due to parental earnings and while they would never have seen us stuck they wouldn't have paid my rent and don't pay my brothers who is currently at uni but then I wouldn't have expected or asked them to either. Both brother and I opted to live at home and commute to uni. We were given a car (mums old car) and I passed it on to brother when I was earning and able to buy my own (there is 8 years between us). Didn't have to pay rent to stay at home but if we wanted to move out the expectation was we would cover our own rent and living costs. I worked every weekend throughout uni which covered my general costs and saved the majority of the loan for car insurance and travelling.. Brother worked out how many hours he would have to work in the part time job he had to cover living costs to move out and decided it wasn't worth it.. Again his loan covers his car insurance and his social life - he also works most Saturdays plus more in the holidays to add to this.
I suppose being that we went to uni locally helped with money and I don't feel I missed anything by not moving out..

Sunflowers11 Ours haven’t been able to do part time work because of the demands of their courses. We paid/are paying their costs through university. They are definitely not dependent or entitled but were encouraged to focus on achieving good degrees and things that improved their career prospects post university.
A part-time job would just have put unreasonable pressure on them with absolutely no long term benefits.