Timetable or student loans

[littleslummygirl]

Just starting to think about this.
When do parents need to get stated?
Which tax year do they assess on for 2020 start date and is it gross or net, with or without pension contributions?
Is there a calculator to give a rough idea?

Look at www.gov.uk student finance. Also UCAS have information. It’s a long time since we did it but as we as I understand earnings have pension contributions taken off and a small amount for other DC at home or at university. However start with the web sites. Also every prospective student open day will have a finance session. As will UCAS fairs. There is a lot of info available.

Martin Lewis said today that many parents didn’t know they had to make a contribution. It would appear that parents are not accessing the info early enough and are not saving. They are then refusing to pay up when they have been assessed to pay and students are leaving their courses due to lack of money. Which is, of course, disastrous. So getting all the info early is vital. It would be useful if this was given to parents when DC get their last report from primary school. At least it would get the info out there even if parents ignore it! A MN campaign for this, I think, would be a great idea.

Agree but now feeling like I ought to have a more precise figure in mind at this point so I can plan this next stage.

Presumably you've plugged your salary into the Gov.uk calculator - all details you need should be there or on the SLC website if you google...

Hasn't Martin Lewis just launched or is about to launch a calculator to answer this?

In the absence of a definitive answer why not save the most you can? If it's too much, great, if it's not enough you couldn't have saved any more anyway and it's way better than nothing.

Which tax year do they assess on for 2020 start date

2018 - 2019

and is it gross or net, with or without pension contributions?

Taxable income

If parents are divorced, is it based on both parents' income, or just the parent they're mainly living with?

If parents are divorced, is it based on both parents' income, or just the parent they're mainly living with?

Neither - it's based on HOUSEHOLD income of the student's main residence. So could well be parent plus step parent combined income. Non resident parent is not assessed.

Thanks- no step-parent involved!

For a rough guide for a lot of mumsnetters with a student outside London their fees will be covered but they might well get £4k maintenace loan in England and be expected to make it up to about £8k. Rents can be about £5k kof that (sometimes £7k) and it also depends how much you would like your children have at university. You have no obligationt to give them a penny and if so they can then earn the difference between minimum and maximum loan or go to a university near home and that kind of thing.

So a lot of people may be looking at paying £4k a year x 3 years per child. or more if they are more generous (I pay £25k a year because I paut the £9250 fees, the rent and an allowance of about £150 a week but that is fairly unusual).

Xenia: the whole thrust of Martin Lewis’s argument was that parents should know how much they are expected to contribute in advance. He argued that choices of students are skewed because the parents are ignorant of this or just don’t want to pay. We don’t have a high class university within daily travel on public transport where we live. The nearest one is not for high calibration students. Generally. So staying at home for university isn’t an option. Neither can all students work. In fact finding jobs in medium sized university towns isn’t always easy either. What happens if all the students want one?

To allow DC to do the best they can, there might be very good reasons why going away to university is imperative. Parents need to know about contributions as early as possible and plan accordingly. It’s about the only time when splitting up from your partner and having one small income in the household makes financial sense!

High calibre students.

They apply in May. If the resident parent(s) earn over £60k or so it's a very short form as they only get the minimum loan. For lower incomes you have to give your incomes from you p60 or tax return.

Ps, anyone reading this with young kids, start saving a bit every month, we did, it really helped

Yes, I agree. Also going to a better university even if the rents are much more or the distance from home is bigger might mean you have very big student debt and that still means life long you earn a huge lot more. So teenagers certanly need to sit down with their calcuators and take a long view.

The loan will cover your fees and at least £4300 out of London which is enough for the bulk of most rents (probably all the rent if it's Oxbridge which has short terms) and most students have a 3 month summer holiday where they can often get work even if they cannot get work during term time.

It is certainly worth telling paernts when their child is about 11 that they should remember to cost for this in future. Eg if the parents' income come to about £60k (not that unusual if you have two full time wages when your children are 18) then parents contribute about £4500 a year or it is suggested that they do. Those whose parents earn very little outside of London who don't live at home may get £8984 a year to cover their rent and living costs. So basically a £4k or £4.5k bit for the parents to make up unless they want to be more generous than that. And they have no obligation to pay a penny.