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?

another not quite done the same calcs as you but a few years back when moving came across some very old paperwork including my first year Uni hall copies - no idea why I still had them. Obviously back in the early 80s we did not have wi-fi, and en-suites were pretty much unheard off. Termly cost, fully catered was £330 so just under £1000 for the year. If I uprate that for inflation that's equivalent to about £1150 today, or just under £3,500 per year. I'd suggest the typical self catered halls cost far more than that. Add the fact that the real value of wages have barely risen since the last recession then you can see why some parents may well struggle to fully support their DC. but we can all sleep easy in the knowledge that Uni vice-chancellors pay has not suffered the same fate

Dd is off to uni in Sept and DH and I are both going to give her £50 a month each to live on.

Luckily for us, we're in Wales, which means she has been able to borrow a lot more for her maintenance and she will have 1-2K left over once she's paid for her accommodation depending on how expensive the option she gets given is.

If we were in England, she'd be a few K short of her rent, and things would be a lot more tight for us - but then she'd have a lot less debt at the end.

Another and boys, I was scanning my old diaries andpapers including university papers from the early 80s. My rent at the same place that university still rents out now - self catered halls near the university - is now three times the 1980s cost AFTER allowing for inflation on the bank of England inflation calculator. The halls will be the same - tiny rooms. I expect there may be wifi but nothing other than market forces to explain a 3x increase.

On funding the main thing parents need to know is if they earn quite well their child will get £4k but many rents are £8k. If they don't earn much they get £8k+ - even up to £11k in London as loan as someone else posted above. It is that gap which is similar to the gap in my day albeit a much smaller gap. I got £50 a year maintenance grant and the full grant was £900 so a big shortfall. Children of parents on benefits etc got the maximum £900 grant which covered your rent and other expenses.

I agree with the post earlier that do make sure the children have a good plan. I would not finance an advanced knitting course at an ex polytechnic unless the child was a UK champion knitter and committed to it with a viable career. That does not mean it has to be degree like mine was - law - very career specific (my daughters did law after they graduated but as they went to fairly good universities and had good grades that was a good option and they both have qualified and have London law jobs. Their brother drives a van for a living, happily and is very glad he did his degree and I am happy I funded him in the same way but he is clearly in the other category - we joke he might as well have left school at 14 and just got a driving licence at 17 as his licence is the only qualification he uses (currently)

It's very likely that both of mine (well dd won't actually do a traditional degree) will do non traditional subjects at ex polytechnics /technical colleges) but as Xenia says, they are both destined for careers in that area (music tech for ds & dance for dd). The ex poly courses we find in many cases are better renowned than some RG universities because of the industry contacts and graduate employment eg Salford. Both kids live and breathe these subjects. But we have the advantage that dh is involved in the performing arts industry and one thing we are concerned about is the plethora of low quality degree courses that are springing up at a myriad of institutions that are not very selective. If dd had not got into the kind of college she is at, there is no way we would have funded her through certain places as it would have been a waste of her time.

If dd gets allocated the most expensive halls she will use her 4k maintenance to pay 2 terms. I will give her 75 a week to live off. Plus put some aside for the final term. It will be about 500 a month. It is expensive but doable. Dd2 will have to take a gap year otherwise we'll have two at uni at once.

Few universities have the most expensive halls priced at £6000 pa. That’s fairly medium pricing at lots of universities. However I think students are unlikely to get the most expensive if they apply for the cheapest.

I agree that the assumption that part time jobs are plentiful isn’t always correct. Some universities are quite a major slice of the population and all these jobs being available is unrealistic. There are holiday jobs which should also be investigated. I also think too many parents seem to think university is the same as “their day” and accommodation clearly has improved out of all recognition! Costs have spiralled but look at the DC on MN who must have an en suite and won’t share! That costs. It’s best to be realistic and make sure you start planning and chatting early enough to allow DC to make sensible choices.

Lots of students doing academic degrees don’t get grad jobs that pay much. Anything in the arts is a lottery but you probably cannot turn a dancer into a Doctor!

DS1 starts uni next month. I've not saved up at all, but he's saved about £1000. After rent, he'll have about £300 a term left, so I'll need to top that up. I've agreed to give him £50 a week during term time and he'll be working part time for extra money for socialising.

This is do-able for me (just means I'll have to cut back on wasting money on Costas, etc 🙄). If DS2 decides to go next year then it will be more of a stretch.

DD starts in September and really didn't have an option other than studying at home uni because we couldn't afford to give her (and then DD2 next year) enough to make up the shortfall.

Yes, saved the child benefit. A normal income household (one parent earning £40k, one £20k) is expected to give each child £4K a year approximately towards maintenance. I have 2 at university.

Low income households can borrow more maintenance money, if parents have split only the residential parent counts. But two full time minimum wage earning parents are still expected to find thousands.

Ps, thankfully dd1 stayed at home in our case, I don't have a spare £8k a year and the child benefit money from birth only came to £15 each so still a shortfall. My sil is saving £100 a month per child from birth

DD going into 3rd year at RG uni. On line for a first. Started work at 16 and has supported herself by working in the holidays. Has had a ball.

Don't know if you've all seen the Martin Lewis guides to student finance. He has a ready reckoned for the parental contribution here: blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2016/09/how-much-are-parents-supposed-to-give-their-children-when-they-go-to-university/?_ga=2.107541504.367167104.1566325652-207933336.1566127277

Fibbsdottir, your dd's maintenance will be split into 3 amounts. And the rent is due in 3 installments too. My DD's first installment is a lot more than 1/3rd of her rent. Her 2nd is less. Her 3rd is higher than 1/3rd. It's unlikely your DC will be able to use their maintenance to fund 2 x terms as she'll get some of it in the 3rd term.

Thanks for the blog link, mum.

I wish the means testing took into consideration the fact I have twins and two (potentially) being away at the same time. I know many families can have several at uni over consecutive/overlapping years though and just have to manage.

For many of my friends the have only entered higher income brackets once their youngest child has reached secondary age. They never had spare income to build a saving pot but are position as families who have had high income for 20 plus years.

Worst case scenario planning is minimum maintenance around £4k. Even the cheapest accommodation I’ve seen is a bit more than that.

Most cost effective approach for parents would seem to be:

• top up maintenance loan to cover accommodation. Be careful choosing as costs vary a lot - some I’ve seen as high as £8k per year!
• provide them with a regular amount to cover losing expenses - suggested amounts seem to range from £50-100 per week during term time. Higher end if you expect them to cover books/travel/phone etc, towards the lower end if they’re mainly covering food and you’ll help out with other expenses as and when (I think we’re aiming for about £75pw)
• consider whether to pay monthly or weekly depending on how disciplined your child is. Maybe start weekly to get them used to budgeting then move to monthly?
• money is paid to the student in three unequal parts and may not arrive in time to lay for accommodation. So factor in that you might need to pay out in advance
• make sure they pay you back when they get their money :)

We also considered paying rent ourselves and leaving the maintenance for their living expenses but that is much more expensive for you and arguably is more money than they need during term time

Best in mind it’s a 3-4 year course so your costs are spread over the full time. If they’re going to uni in 5 years time you have 8 years to save up the total costs, not 5. That can help with budgeting your saving. Also they can work during summer hols to contribute to expenses or pay you back some of the costs which can help with later years finances.

I think for simplicity we’ll just pay the accommodation directly each term and DS can transfer the entire maintenance loan to us each term when it arrives. Saves the hassle of when the loan arrives, working out difference in cost etc

I’ve given her 6k towards rent ( I think it that will cover it ) and £500 per month ( going 1/2’s with her Dad on that ) . Have told her to ask if she needs more for a night out / event but she’s currently at least quite a bargain hunter/saver so am expecting she’ll be ok .

If you get full maintenance of £8944, it probably doesn’t need topping up if you’re lucky with accommodation

£8944 loan
Eg £6k for accommodation - about mid range self catered not en-suite
Leaves you with £77pw for a 38 week period so that even covers Easter and Christmas hols

MrKlaw I agree. The £8944 is fine, and if they work in the summer, they won't need topping up.

We top up both our children to the standard £8944. They're doing a five-year (with placement, so only pay for four) and a six-year course. When they're both at university, that's therefore costing us £9.5k after tax at this year's rates - we don't earn much over the threshold for minimum loan. That's a huge sum to us, just as we're trying to maximise saving for retirement. But we have paid off our mortgage, have a modest car, don't have big living expenses or go on expensive holidays. I really sympathise with those who live in the southeast like us, but still have a mortgage and other children.

This is why we're grateful ae live in Wales.
All students get £9kish maintenance.
More of it is a grant if they are in a lower income household. More of it is loan if they are in a higher income household. All students get a minimum £1k grant.

So dds maintenance covers accommodation and leaves about £100pw for term weeks.

We are a low income single parent household and DD1 will get about £8,400 in maintenance loan, which is pretty good. I'm also in a position to support her financially so she won't need to work. She wants to though, just a small part time job to get some experience in.

I know a family in Wales contributing £4k/kid/yr towards Uni living costs.

We just save what we can for whatever comes up. It will mean spending a lot on at least one DC at Uni.

I ‘ve had three at university for the last few years , joint earnings put us just above the threshold hold and it is financially crippling for us . I really did try to plan as much as possible for this but getting guidance from student finance was almost impossible until I involved our mp .