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?

I would encourage your DC to get a part time job whilst in 6th form, as it then makes getting a job at uni so much easier when they have experience. May even be able to work for the same company in the new town (John Lewis/Waitrose/Sainsbury’s etc are all good for this).

My DS worked part time as a tutor and in schools for the tutor trust throughout uni, and then worked full time through all the holidays back at home for his old 6th form job, and then at internships he got. He left uni with more money than he started with!

Having said that, DD wasn’t allowed a term time job (Cambridge) but she also returned to her 6th form job and worked every holiday.

Certainly not a snowflake here, as she has been working all summer, but as I can comfortably afford to pay her rent etc from my own income, I will. She will probably be able to keep her current job in the holidays, but she doesn't need to work during term time.

Eh? Who says parents have to contribute hundreds of pounds? My DD gets so much money she should be supporting me! I think it's at least 9 thousand a year?

And I've lost child benefit and tax credits for her now so a big drop in my income, but still have to pay the costs for her horse while she is away

And I've lost child benefit and tax credits for her now so a big drop in my income, but still have to pay the costs for her horse while she is away

Yes because having a horse is what tax credits are for

9k in maintenance loan?? Wtf?

Well the maximum loan amounts are £8,944 outside London and £11,672 in London so that sounds about right.

Dd will only be eligible for about £4,168 though. Cheapest accommodation at her university is £5,500. So she’ll need to work & save & we will need to give her money.

My Ds has been working since y12 and his part-time work is several hundred a month (term time) so can cover the extra quite easily.

I've paid a deposit for his accommodation but working longer hours in the holidays and part-time during term-time leaves him with a good standard of living imo,

You only have to pay contribution if you earn over a certain amount or do they expect every parent to be able to afford £100ish a week minimum?

OP
Yesterday 22:20 CherryPavlova

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

Workload for A-levels was huge, as was uni, no idea how people manage jobs on top without having a mental breakdown tbh, I had one without the part-time job, just the stress of trying to do well.

You only have to pay contribution if you earn over a certain amount or do they expect every parent to be able to afford £100ish a week minimum?

Yes - anyone with a household income of less than around £25k a year is NOT expected to contribute - their dcs will be entitled to the full maintenance loan of around £9k a year.

Above that there's a sliding scale to around £65k - above which dcs are only entitled to the basic maintenance loan of £4K, with parents expected to top up.

My dd's hours are 9am - 6pm Mon - Fri with additional early and late classes 2/3 days per week (8am start 7pm finish) In addition at certain times of the year (assessments & performances) she is expected to be there weekends and evenings til 10pm ish.

Now I know those sort of contact hours are unusual and its becasue she's doing a professional perrforming arts course, but it does limit somewhat her ability to work.

Again it is really worth considering both income and outgoings. The amount some kids spend is astonishing given it is obvious their parents are really struggling to find the money.

I don't think parents are under any obligation to provide more than the basics. If parents are stretched, going out money should be earned (either in holidays, term time or a gap year) or saved by being extra thrifty. Spending less on food by cooking from scratch is often healthier, despite what other posters thing.

Now the children have left home we find we are spending a lot less on food as well. No more big shops, and a lot less meat.

This thread shouldn't put off those on low incomes.

I went to university in the early 1980s, with a full grant, and found I had money left at the end of term, because I was frugal. I still went out loads, but I had frugal friends, so we were all in the same boat.

Due to the family income, my DS is only eligible for the minimum loan. We top it up to the full amount. He is also frugal, and has had no problem living on that in a ridiculously expensive city - he's always had money to spare at the end of term. He got a job in the summer holiday.

I feel the issue isn't that the recommended income is too low - it's that some parents don't make the recommended parental contribution. Either because they can't or won't.

So if you are on a low income, don't be put off about your children studying. You won't need to top up, as they will manage fine. In fact, the son of a relative was eligible for a grant because of their low income, and gets a considerable amount every year (000s) so is much better off than my DS.

@Comefromaway when I was at drama school I taught children’s classes on a Saturday morning for a big performing arts school franchise.... really great pay, fun job (which I kept for 8 years after leaving drama school), only a few hours per week and related to what I was studying. Might be worth looking into for your DD!

Magpie - she's ahead of the game she's just assisted at a summer school for a week and has been offered a job teaching the 4-6 year old combined class and the 6-8 year old dance class starting September 3 hours a week. Unfortunately the school is a bit of a distance so she will have about 60-90 min train journey there and back.

She originally started applying a year ago and in the meantime took a very low paid job assistig at the saturday classes of her college for a year to get experience (travel cost almost as much as she earnt).

@comefromaway that sounds great! Well done her for being ahead of the game! I bet she will have a great time too.

Thank you for everyone’s replies they’ve been really informative.

I just want dds experience of higher education to be worthwhile and not the disappointment mine was due to my own naivety through being the first uni applicant in my v working class family

I really did think a degree was a golden ticket to a better life, literally any degree from anywhere!! If I do nothing else I’ll be making sure dd goes into with her eyes open

I think the message you should take away, worldsworststepford wife, is that your DD should do the best course at the best university she can get into. That is not necessarily local and you may need to top up her loan depending upon your income. Do not curtail her aspiration and needs because most financial requirements can be managed. But, yes, its best to do some saving. Can grandparents help?

You can look at how much loan she might get and plan according to your circumstances. What others get and spend is not what your DD might want and spend. No one is prevented from going to the best universities but I do think London has its particular challenges regarding living costs.

Many parents on MN boast about how frugal their DC are, but you know your DD best. My DD1 had a shared bathroom and had a the cheapest shared room. DD2 did not. En suite luxury is not vital and there are many other ways to keep costs down. However, some DCs do like to go out more and you need an honest discussion about what your DD would like to do and how much it will cost plus who is providing the money for it! Then you can plan.

I would start to curb any expensive habits right now!!!

(As for the horse ownership on benefits above! - I'm shocked)

If Brexit predictions are true and we have a recession at the door, there won’t be many part time jobs available for students as they will be taken by recently unemployed people who would have more availability.

I worked in the area of student finance during the last recession. The amount of students struggling badly because they assumed the could get a part time job was heartbreaking (and as infuriating as the amount of clueless parents claiming they could find that elusive job because they and their friends did 20-30 years ago).

It is not the same these days, for starters rents are much higher, and there may not be many local jobs they can apply for.

Short answer: no, I am not. ATM, I am paying school fees, so there's no spare money anywhere at all (including driving lessons, as it happens: they will have to learn to drive once they have jobs and can pay for lessons). However, if the expected parental contribution is around £450 pcm, that is at least less than I am used to.

That said, the main thing I have said to my DC (one doing A levels next year, and the other in 3 years' time) is that if they are going to university, they need to be doing a 'proper' course at a 'proper' university. Either it needs to lead to the possibility of a proper job (rather than a load of debt for nothing), or it needs to be something that they are doing just because they love and live and breathe the subject (as DC1 does, and he will probably end up in academia).

Otherwise they might as well get a job and start earning and learning something useful. I have also said that, whatever they do, they are not doing it at home. They need to be young, do stuff with people of their own age, learn to manage budgets etc, not living with Mum. They need to do things that I don't want to know about!

for starters rents are much higher
This is very true. My DS went to the same university as I did, but 35 years later. As a result, I was able to compare the cost of the identical accommodation as a percentage of the full grant (me) vs the full loan and expected parental accommodation (DS).

For exactly the same room (single room, shared bathroom on campus), it cost 33% of my grant vs 60% of my DS's loan/parental contribution. A shocking increase, and reflecting the general housing shortage!

I found my grant very generous indeed (1983), and didn't get a job during term time. I think it's been tighter for DS, but food is a lot cheaper relatively, and it's been easier to get access to books rather than having to buy any. He had no problem getting a job last summer - with the recession looming, Tanmateix, I think you are right.

@CherryPavlova absolute rubbish, not long out of uni myself and I still worked all during Uni. The tutors tell you the same, your not allowed a job blah blah blah, but even they said they live in the real world and know for some people not working is not an option.

Sunflowers11 Were you doing medicine? Were you on placements two hours from your accommodation? Do enlighten me how you managed the amount of study needed, the travel and the hours on placements? Sadly ours couldn’t fit in part-time work. None of her peers did either.
You must be pretty impressive if that’s the case.

For some working part-time is not an option.