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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

How much do you give your child on top of their loan?

104 replies

tinkywinkyshandbag · 19/07/2020 10:23

Hi, DD hopefully starting uni in Sept. We are on a very tight budget as DH is currently not working and I'm self employed. Just budgeting for next year, very very grateful that she got nearly full loan which will cover most of Hall fees (catered if she gets her first choice). How much do people generally budget to cover additional expenses, clothes, lunches, pocket money etc? Thanks.

OP posts:
MillicentMartha · 22/07/2020 16:57

DS3 will get maximum loan of £9000 odd and a bursary of £1-2k depending on which uni he gets into. He’ll be living on that. I think if you top up to the maximum loan amount plus £1k if you can afford it, they’ll be fine so long as they’re not living in really expensive halls.

Comefromaway · 22/07/2020 17:01

@doadeer

Can't they work?
That depends on the workload. For starters it takes time to get to know an area and to job hunt. Many places want part timers to be totally flexible. My dd saw countless weekend jobs advertised that stated it was essential to be able to work weekdays as well. Some courses like hers have much higher contact hours & unsociable hours, others may have to attend placements out of the area.

My dd did find a part time job that fitted with her course, but in March it was closed down and it’s not certain it will be able to re-open in September.

doadeer · 22/07/2020 17:16

Fair I guess it depends on course. Mine had little lecture time (history) so lots of library time. I worked 20 hours a week and earned £600 a month to live on plus I did champagne waitressing gigs for extra cash. Maybe there's more jobs in London. I didn't have a choice anyway as my parents were broke.

Comefromaway · 22/07/2020 17:27

Whereas mine is in at 8.30am every day & the earliest she leaves is 4pm, it can be 7pm some nights with extra weekend rehearsals & performances around assessment time.

Comefromaway · 22/07/2020 17:29

For the course to be Industry accredited they have to have in excess of 30 hours contact time per week.

BlessYourCottonSocks · 22/07/2020 17:40

Nothing. I can't afford to run two households - or even partly run two households. Once you get to 18, if you want to go to Uni in our house then you need to work out how you are going to do that. You're an adult who needs to decide if you can afford to take a loan and part time work to support your future.

Comefromaway · 22/07/2020 17:46

Unless your income is so low that your child would get the maximum then that’s a very sad attitude. Unfortunately, however I live in an area where many parents do not value education and their children are highly disadvantaged.

doadeer · 22/07/2020 17:52

@Comefromaway

Unless your income is so low that your child would get the maximum then that’s a very sad attitude. Unfortunately, however I live in an area where many parents do not value education and their children are highly disadvantaged.
My parents didn't have spare money, it didn't mean University wasn't valued. I didn't get any financial support other than my 6k loan and I got a first class honours and self funded a masters.

My 18 year old brother has been working for months so he has money for his first term hopefully at Cambridge.

Sometimes work can be a good thing to focus your time.

Comefromaway · 22/07/2020 17:53

My dh still remembers how his parents refused to give him the parental contribution at university And instead let my parents subsidise him by allowing him to live rent free in a property they rented to other students.

His parents are now infirm and his mother has dementia and we appear to be expected to help look after them both in time and finances, potentially impacting on our jobs.

He loves them dearly despite everything & if they’d supported him we’d be much more inclined but our resources are going to go on our kids, not them.

TheDrsDocMartens · 22/07/2020 18:08

Both get full loan. I’ve been giving £30 a month to dd1. With both away this year I’ll be aiming for similar but I’ve not worked since March so going to be tight. Dd1 is going abroad so work will be difficult too.
Dd2 will look for a job but not likely to be many about.

Fungster · 22/07/2020 18:30

My 5 didn't have loans and I paid their fees, rent and £150 a week

Goodness, your kids were lucky!

weegiemum · 22/07/2020 18:39

My Dd1 is at art school in Scotland, so all fees paid, thank goodness.

She gets £425 a month loan, which covers rent/food/bills (she lives with her boyfriend in a 1 bed flat which really keeps the costs down as her rent is about 50% of others due to sharing a room). She works in a bar 2 evenings at the weekends, so we actually have to pay nothing. We do things like take her food shopping occasionally, but her things she needs (last month it was a new hairdryer) and we provide all her art supplies (which is a LOT of stuff and we can buy her the good brands of paint etc). We pay her phone contract, travel pass for the year and we bought/maintain her bike.

Xenia · 23/07/2020 09:59

Fungster, yes but who knows? If your mother pays your fees and you have no student loan may be you have less of an incentive to work hard? I just wanted mine to be in the same position as my parents put me in - they made a very very minimal minimum UK state student grant up to the full grant on the basis they paid for our education and then we were in a sense on our own which seems quite a good basis. However it is complicated by the fact many people will never have to pay back the student loan (these days under the loan basis) so I obviously take a risk on that or looking at it the other way have helped tax payers not have any student loan burden for my 5.

I think the £150 a week is generous - the twins still get that as they are about to start 2 years of full time post grad studies but they certainly know people who get more.

Ragwort · 23/07/2020 10:09

We will be giving our DS £200 a month, that will take him close to the "recommended" full maintenance amount. He also gets £100 a month from his GPs. We don't pay the monthly allowance during the Summer vacations. For his first year at Uni he got a much larger loan as our income on the year it was calculated was considerably lower - this has since changed.
When he first went to uni he was able to get a p/t job but that will be harder now although he has secured some work as a student ambassador - he's also earned a lot over the last few weeks and had very few expenses due to living at home so he is in quite a good financial position.

boys3 · 24/07/2020 20:54

we have with DS1 (done and dusted) and DS2 tended to top up to recommended level.

This may change for DS2 this autumn as Uni effectively closed in March, no final term hall costs, but maintenance loan still received. He has been working pretty much full time since returning and was lucky enough to get furlough pay when employer was initially closed. So next term may be different to our usual approach.

mycatscausehell · 08/08/2020 18:30

just finished my first year at uni. My parents didn't give me any extra money this year as I could afford to live and pay my rent(non-catered) off my loan. however, for the second year, my parents have said they will top up my loan by a grand as my rent has increased dramatically. I actually fought against this as I wanted to be self-sufficient and will be looking for jobs again when I return to my uni city

lovelemoncurd · 08/08/2020 18:32

We pay her £300 a month plus endless subs! It stops next year thank goodness 😅

WhatHaveIFound · 08/08/2020 18:41

We are on a very tight budget as DH is currently not working and I'm self employed.

Have you asked for it to be reassessed due to a drop in income?

I filled in the CYI form as DD was originally given the minimum loan but due to a drop in income (DH & I are both self employed) we asked for the current financial year to be taken into account. She's now been granted the maximum loan.

KnottyAndPistey · 08/08/2020 18:45

We pay her rent. She gets the minimum loan to cover other things. She was told at UCL they were not to have a job. Their time would be taken up with study. Between us all her friendS work as does, she has a 2 day a week after school Until bedtime hours nanny job. And she rows for the UL elite crew. And that’s like a full time job.

So I suppose I’m effect we are giving her approx £450 ish a month

Handbaghag · 08/08/2020 18:46

Our total income is 44k but will reduce to 41 from September. DS will get 6k loan despite us telling them our income was reducing by 3k. We're not sure how we'll manage on 3k less per year let alone whether we can help DS. At the moment we'll do a big shop at the start of each term for him and pay his phone (so he has no excuse not to contact us) but we're unsure how it will all work out. He's in a self catering flat. He doesn't yet realise that parents are 'supposed' to top up to the 9k full amount and has said he will need to get a job as he has realised he won't have any money. It's really hard not knowing how we'll be able to support him. I'm trying to get some extra tutoring and exam marking to top up our income (I'm an ex teacher). Good luck to all those parents in the same boat as us. For those parents who can afford to fund their kids through uni without loans, it must be nice to have that kind of money.

Lazypuppy · 08/08/2020 18:54

My mum topped up my rent, but only because i worked part time to pay for food/nights out etc.

She agreed to help as long as i was only working.

I worked for the whole 3 years at least 16hrs a week, and in school holidays i always went up to full time. I never moved home once i left at 18

Janaih · 08/08/2020 19:01

Dd gets maximum loan, I dont give her anything, other than pay her mobile 20 a month and occasionally pay for her shopping. She has a part time job as well. She is not short of money.

bruffin · 08/08/2020 19:05

Dd on minimum grant of 5k, we pay mobile and £50 a week. She is in Cardiff so rent is cheap

CurseryKinkajoo · 08/08/2020 19:13

@WhatHaveIFound not sure if you’d question was aimed at me but anyway, our income has dropped massively so we did dc1’s student finance application online on 16th June and did the paper CYI at the same time and posted it the next day.

We received confirmation on 23rd July that she’s getting the full maintenance loan which is a huge relief and possibly helpful for others in a similar position to know!

LauraAshleyDuvetCover · 08/08/2020 19:30

My parents paid for my accommodation and I had the minimum loan for books/food/clothes/society subs/trips etc. Then at the end of the year I gave them what I had left.

My grandparents would often send some money for a treat, or various family members would send me a book/chocolates/bath stuff (I was very homesick in my first year though, so I think that was to cheer me up rather than being much to do with money).

We weren't supposed to have jobs, although I did a bit of tutoring and was paid for some outreach work I did.

I did a year in industry, and was paid well for that, so paid for my own accommodation then.