Minimum Maintenance Loan but we just cant afford the shortfall!

[JufusMum]

Hi all - looking for some advice. Because of DH salary we just about fall into the bracket where DD will get the minimum maintenance load (about £4300). The fact is that doesn't even cover her rent let alone food and travel, so we are wondering what we do? I understand parental contribution but with our bills, even though DH has a decent salary I only earn a very small amount and I am not sure where this extra £4-5k a year is going to spring from. I am considering weekend/evening jobs and looking at scholarships/bursaries but most are means tested. How do "middle earners" cope?

So how is his take home £2300 if he's only spending £800 a month on petrol?! Which is still utterly insane.

It's going to be tough but you guys can do it. Can she tutor or be a note taker? Has she applied for bursaries and scholarships? What about a dance scholarship (does that exist?).

I have been saving for our kids education since they were born. £150/month each X 3 kids. I'm hoping to be able to pay for half of their schooling and they will all be expected to work part time as well.

As a family we earn a joint income of around £65k (dh £31k and me 34k). We have 2 children to support through higher education. On current figures they would be entitled to £4,168 maintenance. We will top it up to the maximum amount by living within our means. Putting money into savings whilst our children need it now for their education hasn't even occurred to me.

Same happened to me. I worked full time during the summer and that gave me cash for term time.

Lots of unhelpful responses here.

You’re Dh take home probably is reduced because of pension as well. I live rurally also and finding work that is paid above 20k or so is almost impossible. Some people have no idea.

The uni parental contribution is not understood by A LOT of parents and until you are at the point of your child going, it’s hard to comprehend.

I hate being nearly 50 and working in a job I hate because I’m supporting children through uni and paying bills for two lots of elderly parents as well. It’s shit! So you have my sympathy. It’s crap.

Lots of unhelpful responses here including yours, it has to be said.

(If you earn 20k your dds will get a much bigger maintenance loan)

As I work in payroll I’m well aware of how company cars and pensions affect people’s take home pay.

Lots of others in the sane boat. My husband used to commute (& lodge away from home from Staffordshire to Kent 3 days per week, paying all his costs himself so I’m also aware of how these costs impact.

But the OP seems to think she’s the only one who can’t afford it.

Does she really need a car in January? Surely she could drive yours. Lots of university campuses don’t allow first year students to bring cars onto campus.

The best tip I can give is for her to work for the university itself: admin, library shelving and catering work can all be done flexibly with no travel costs.

I don't think an expensive hobby is realistic,maybe there will be something she can do at uni. DS had to drop his and it was his 'life' too. He does it through the uni now at a fraction of what we were paying.

I know people whose kids worked for a year or two before going off so they could contribute.

I have to say I had NO idea about shortfalls,I thought the debt was the students alone. It was a bit of an eye opener!

@JufusMum you could make a huge difference if DH swapped his company car for a Hybrid model - the difference in petrol consumption is astronomical.

MaybeDoctor
She can’t really drive my car. Her school is in the opposite direction to where I work (different towns). I would have no way of getting to work if she drove my car to school

How much does your annual holiday cost by the time you’ve factored in spending money, etc? 1k?

So that’s 1k you can give her, plus then£100 a month dance money saved. Remember you’ll lose child benefit though.

I increased my hours to full time the year before dd started uni so things wouldn’t be so tight.

Can your dd get a job in the summer holidays before she starts and save all holiday money pay?

Oh and dance society at uni for dd is £75 a year. Then loads of dance stuff she can attend for free.

We won’t be having any holidays while she is at uni. DD dances competitively with an association called the ADFP. She wants to continue doing that. She likes the competitive side of dance. We have been to see the dance societies at all the unis we have visited and none of them compete in that association or even do the dance style that she studies (disco freestyle).
Dance costs will come down as she will not be doing as many competitions and most schools do not train as many hours as her current one does. I imagine dance will come down to £10 a week plus competition costs.
I am not taking that away from her.

We have to pay, end of, there's always been parental contributions even under grants (my parents had to give me £2260 from memory). I have 2 at university, but we knew this would be the case so saved every month from birth even when things were super tight

You've got the money though. The £200 a month you normally save. The £100 you'll save on food. £50 a month saved on dance. £100 a month saved by not going on holiday.

Really OP you don't know the meaning of the words 'just can't afford'. You can EASILY afford it.

Can you extend your mortgage term for whilst she is at uni?

Your DH really needs to look at getting a different company car tbh the cost of it is insane

It's a shame she won't do the uni dance instead. Dd has made loads of friends at uni sports clubs.

@Dandelion1993, parents ARE supposed to contribute else why would the loan depend on parental income? It is selfish not to plan for this if you can afford it (and that doesn't mean easily afford it) but choose not to.
Parents are supposed to make up the difference between the loan students receive and the maximum loan.
Whether the government's calculation on what is affordable is right is another matter.
Some families can make up the difference easily, and others by cutting back expenditure elsewhere, working extra hours, saving in advance (parents and children), or in some cases not at all. But those children will be at a disadvantage.
Not all students can get a job - study hours depend on the course, and medical and science degrees tend to have significantly more contact and self study hours, and many have required ward/experience hours as other have mentioned.
I think the full loan should be available to all students so children aren't at a disadvantage from having parents who can't or in some cases won't make up the difference. Not saying you are in this case OP - but I do know that some of my daughter's friends' parents fall into this category as having no intention of helping.

Oh, and one other way I heard of recently on a phone-in was a family who are renting out their child's room while he is away and using the rent a room income to give to their son. He has to share with his brother while he's back.

Why doesn't your daughter look to study a degree that is less specific than police studies and will carry more weight when getting a job in case she doesn't get into the police. For example criminology and she can do add ons with law or police.

That way she wouldn't need a car to be a special. Also, it takes ages to do the application process and a lot are not successful.

Also, why not study near home so she doesn't need accommodation?

OP can you really not see it comes across when you're saying you "can't afford" to support your DD at university, then saying you earn over £60k and have savings over 5k, but you will have to give up your holidays and savings, and your DH is reluctant to look at ways to stop spending over £1200 a month on his car/petrol? Don't you think people might be thinking that they wish they were in the same boat and they wouldn't be moaning at all? You're actually in a very fortunate position.

You also have choices that you can make (albeit not ideal, I know but they are there). You say that you were "not made aware" that loans are mean tested but how can you have been totally unaware you would be expected to contribute?

I'm not intending to be mean or "spiky" but bloody hell, I (and I'm sure lots of others) would absolutely love to be in your position!

Your DD also sounds like she will be doing a degree that she really wants to do, and it will be useful for a career, and she has parents that will support her. It hopefully will be short term (ish) financial pain but definitely for long term gain.

This will probably come across as "spiky" but I'm disappointed in the first post. We earn just over half that of the OP and have 2 DDs at uni. We are meant to make up some money for both, but other than their phone contracts (SIM only) and one gym membership, we've paid nothing. Both work every summer and save.

DD1 has a bursary from her Uni and from a trust which gave money to people studying science. She sings in a college choir which means she gets free formal dinners each week. She self-caters and eats a vegetarian dairy-free diet which means she doesn't spend a lot. She has actually saved money in her first 2 years. DD2 also has a large bursary which will arrive in February and pay most of her accommodation for the next year. She is a term-time vegetarian as it's cheaper. She also self-caters.

Both are good musicians and will happily busk over the Christmas holidays to earn extra cash. DH and I are really supportive but until teachers' pay goes up and his business takes off, we are stuck. We both run cars (girls' car stays here during uni terms) but have no TV/Netflix/Amazon/whatever subscriptions. We also live in a rural area and spend a fair bit on fuel. It's doable. We don't take many holidays - we go and stay with friends/family. We don't eat out and rarely get takeaways. We can save a bit each month because we aren't shopping for the girls. We are happy.

She could keep the dance cheap by starting a disco freestyle club at college. The students union normally give grants to get new clubs started. One of my colleagues started a club in her first year at Uni, by the time she graduated the club was national champions - just another way of looking at things.
The car seems to be the obvious thing to look at, I know all about company cars supplying them for my staff. Smaller cheaper low emission cars are the way to go,

No 18 year old ‘has’ to have a car to get to school. How does she get there now? She can carry on getting to school in the same way she does now, then borrow your car to get herself to dance on Saturday.

You could find yourself buying, taxing and insuring a car that then stands idle once she is at university as she cannot take it with her. The university where I am going to start a postgraduate course does not issue parking permits to anyone who has a place in halls.