Page 4 | What allowance to give DD when starting her degree in September

Londonmummy66 · 2021-04-29T17:39:39+00:00

I'm not really sure what to give DD when she starts in September. She has a scholarship so her course fees are only £300 a term. As she is in London her rent is nearly £200 a week. DH and I had originally planned to pay her fees so have decided we should pay her rent instead. Would £500 pcm be about right on top she is sensible so would save any extra cash she had at the end of the month - it feels as if she wouldn't have to decide between a new pair of tights and food and give her enough to do some socialising etc as well. Should mention that she is going to study music so there are instrument costs etc like strings and bow rehairs etc that are not cheap either.

BackforGood · 02/05/2021 15:35

Lots of student work has disappeared in case no one noticed

Indeed, for quite a proportion of the las 13 months, it has, but at the same time, so have spending opportunities. So the spending money hasn't been needed, as there has been nowhere to go, during the time the earning opportunities have closed down.
As places to spend money start to open up again, then the jobs in those venues will also start opening up again.

I do agree though (as I often state in the 'how much does a student need' threads, and, indeed in the 'how much pocket money does a child / teen need?' threads) - it will depend a lot on what their expectations are and what lifestyle they have been used to.

CMeredithC · 02/05/2021 15:51

To be fair, part of the fun of London is going out. Otherwise why bother to be there?

Depends why you mean by going out? Have you ever thought some people don’t actually like going out? I didn’t move to London to go out, I moved there to take advantage of the amazing education and training opportunities the city provides. None of which required heaps of money for socialising.

London is great for cheap last minute tickets to concerts and shows, we used to watch whole seasons at ROH for virtually nothing, you can get student tickets for £1. If you go into central once a week and make that your ‘night out’, it doesn’t have to cost much more than £6-8.

EachandEveryone · 02/05/2021 19:07

@PresentingPercy

Lots of student work has disappeared in case no one noticed. One persons luxury is another persons standard lifestyle. London tends to have its own lifestyle and I guess at CSM you didn’t have £9-10,000 hall fees. I know - DD was at LCF and definitely got hair dyed for free!

Who said anything about meals with wine? To be fair, part of the fun of London is going out. Otherwise why bother to be there? It’s the opportunities that make it fun.

Op- your DD might also find students get amazing discounts at top class venues. I know the ROH has student tickets. When life gets back to normal it’s a huge shame if music students cannot take advantage of this by staying on a campus and not venturing out trying to manage on £25 a week. As you are no doubt aware, this really is cutting down to basics. Your DD will have a wonderful time and I do urge you to make the opportunities happen for her.

Halls at UAL are £900 a month and the loan covers it leaving a couple of hundred left and believe it or not her and her new mates have managed so far as theres no bills after that, they walk, drink is bought from Aldi. My niece cuts her cloth as do all her friends. Her mates studying outside of London are no better off because the loan is bigger in London. They are a creative bunch and really make do. Now the bars are starting to open hopefully she will beable to get a part time job although none of them seem to be rushing😃

PresentingPercy · 02/05/2021 23:44

Dd went to UAL (LCF) and isn’t into making do. She didn’t need to and that’s just not her thing. Not going out in London would have killed her. It was also about networking and being seen. Not everyone is the same.

The tickets for students at ROH are usually £10, not £1! DD1 used to go. I’m not sure about other venues.

Yes jobs might come back but I can assure you all the people laid off will be looking for them and loads won’t re open, eg Debenhams, Top Shop etc. It’s been suggested lots of clubs and pubs won’t reopen. I’m not sure it’s a very rosy position for September.

HerMammy · 02/05/2021 23:50

Is staying at home not an option? I’m
in Scotland and loads of students stay at home, I’ve only seen it on MN where they all
leave home, even if it’s only a 30minute commute.

CMeredithC · 02/05/2021 23:55

The tickets for students at ROH are usually £10, not £1! DD1 used to go. I’m not sure about other venues.

Most productions at ROH offer(ed) student-only premieres with about a third of the seats for £1. This has been the case at least for the last 5 years. They sell out within minutes but they're pretty common. RFH offers the odd £1-2 ticket but it's normally £5. We used to save up for musicals as those were never cheaper than £25. Our teachers also used to get us into the shows they were playing in for free, or on last minute tickets for £5.

Yes, it will be tough come September with fewer jobs and presumably more demand. I hope it doesn't put students off studying in London.

Original poster

Londonmummy66 · 03/05/2021 12:11

Thank you everyone - living at home was not an option for her nor would I have wanted it for her. Part of the student experience is living away from home and the only way she would go to RCM rather than a slightly less prestigious college out of London was if she could live in halls. I'm hoping it will be really good for her. Certainly the friends she knows in higher years all lived in halls in their first year even if the family home was nearby.

OP posts:

Xenia · 03/05/2021 13:19

In England it is part of the experience (moving away from home for the first time ) independence etc which is one reason the CV19 restrictions forcing students in large part to stay at home have been so wrong in the last 12 months.

HerMammy · 03/05/2021 13:42

@Xenia
It’s not exclusive to England fgs! One of my DD is away at uni, due to distance, my point is if you live very near uni why pay £800+ pm

DietrichandDiMaggio · 03/05/2021 14:12

@HerMammy You said you are in Scotland and loads of students live at home, so that is where the reference to England comes from; most students in England don't choose a university close to home, because they want the experience of living away, whereas your experience suggests it is different in Scotland. In the OP's case, living away is part of the experience for her daughter, but the best place for her to study happens to be her home city.

Xenia · 03/05/2021 16:27

Yes, I only said England because above someone had said most students in Scotland live at home and go to the local university - I have no idea what most Scottish people do other than it is free there and we have to pay here which seems grossly unfair to me.

HerMammy · 03/05/2021 16:53

@Xenia
I said ‘loads’ not most, personally do not see the need to pay for overpriced halls when your family home is nearby.
We have no fees as a result of who we vote for 😉

Parker231 · 03/05/2021 17:27

Am very jealous of the Scottish system although in England the statistics show only 25% earn enough to repay the loan.

BackforGood · 03/05/2021 19:08

my point is if you live very near uni why pay £800+ pm

Well, most students don't pay anywhere near £800pm, but reasons are

learning how to budget

-learning how to 'adult' (dealing with life when things go wrong) -social life and making friends with other new people

for many it is a wonderful chance to transition from living as a child in your parents' home, and living as an independent adult

I know my dc were all adamant they would be moving away for University, despite the fact there is more than one excellent University in our home City.

I understand that it is much more common to live at home for Scottish students.
I don't think it is in Wales as a whole, but it definitely is at Swansea where a high % of students come from the South Wales Area - this is to do with how much their fees are I am told.

Xenia · 03/05/2021 19:49

My son's friend whose parents moved to the UK for his sixth form education moved up to where he is now at university - that is parental commitment! He lives at home.

Oldowl · 03/05/2021 20:15

In answer to OP, it depends on the cost of accommodation.

DS will be starting at a home counties university and his self catering accommodation is 7k a year. He will get the minimum loan 4.4k, so we will pay his accommodation and he will live off the loan.

DD is at university in London. She chose the cheapest room (shared) in the cheapest hall for 3.4k a year. We suggested we pay her accommodation and she live off the minimum London loan around 6k. She said she could manage without our help as 2.6k would be enough to live on for 30 weeks as her hall is partially catered (evening meal). So we have kept her £10 a week pocket money going and her grandma gives her £50 a month. So she has 3.8k to live on for 30 weeks. She has worked in the holidays and part time during term time (vaccinating) so she has not gone short.

If accommodation had been 11k , it would have been a different story.

Middersweekly · 03/05/2021 21:19

@BackforGood both the university fees loan and maintenance loan accrue interest these days. From the minute it’s paid to you the interest starts building. I’d rather my DD didn’t have the burden of 57+ K debt plus interest when she’s just starting out in life which is why we are choosing to pay her accommodation fees.

Ginmakesitallok · 03/05/2021 21:40

Just to say, we're in Scotland and none of my dd's friends are staying at home. Most kids move out.

BackforGood · 03/05/2021 22:19

and that's fine Midders. Totally up to each of us to decide what is best for all our individual circumstances.

There are still many people who don't understand that the repayments are a tax on your income and do not change if you owe more money. That it is quite confusing that it is called a 'loan' as it doesn't work as any other loan does. They usually appreciate finding that out, and saving the money to hand over in cash if that is an option, which is why so many posters on here will share that information, then everyone can make an informed decision.

Parker231 · 04/05/2021 08:12

Back - yes it should be referred to as a graduate tax and not a loan. When the graduate is earning enough (and many won’t) it appears on the payslip from their employer as a payroll deduction in the same way as PAYE, national insurance and pension.

MrKlaw · 04/05/2021 09:41

@Oldowl

In answer to OP, it depends on the cost of accommodation.

DS will be starting at a home counties university and his self catering accommodation is 7k a year. He will get the minimum loan 4.4k, so we will pay his accommodation and he will live off the loan.

DD is at university in London. She chose the cheapest room (shared) in the cheapest hall for 3.4k a year. We suggested we pay her accommodation and she live off the minimum London loan around 6k. She said she could manage without our help as 2.6k would be enough to live on for 30 weeks as her hall is partially catered (evening meal). So we have kept her £10 a week pocket money going and her grandma gives her £50 a month. So she has 3.8k to live on for 30 weeks. She has worked in the holidays and part time during term time (vaccinating) so she has not gone short.

If accommodation had been 11k , it would have been a different story.

IMO thats too much to live on. Goes back to what I said earlier in the thread. If you can afford it, great but while 'easier' to work out, its costing you more than it needs to. You'll be paying out 7k a year.

Minimum loan - put it towards accommodation and top it up. Then provide a reasonable amount for living expenses (£200-300pm?). If you do that for the 10 months they're at uni, thats 3k living expenses + 2.6k to top up rent. 5.6k total saving you £1500 a year

MarchingFrogs · 04/05/2021 11:25

The loan is in the student's name and is their responsibility to repay, though. The amount they get being affected (reduced) by the parental income, there is an expectation (and a certain moral responsibility) for the patent to make up the difference . Choosing to do it by paying for accommodation and then leaving the DC to live on the actual loan, where they get the minimum, has a certain neatness about it and if the total comes to more than the maximum, one can then ask them to hand some over. Or not - there is no law against helping one's own DC financially a bit more than is strictly necessary, surely, if one can afford to?

We paid the first year accommodation fees for DS1 and DD outright and they kept / keep their loan, which for DD definitely worked in her favour. But then, I hardly ever do a supermarket / online food shop for her and certainly didn't for DS1, which a lot of folk seem to do as a regular thing.

Comefromaway · 04/05/2021 12:04

We offered to pay dd's accommodation but she just wanted to sort it all out herself. So we transfer her money every month and she handles everything.

PresentingPercy · 04/05/2021 13:57

We did it the other eway around for DD1 as her loan was about what her accommodation fees were. So in and out very neatly. We then paid her a monthly sum for everything else.

London hall fees are very expensive. The OP has already committed to halls at just under £200 per week and these (I believe) have practice rooms and are for RCM students. They are for 44 weeks per per year or 51. So the maths is easy to do and wsay above the minimum loan. At the sum the OP mentioned, this room is ensuite. There was cheaper but if you can afford en suite, why not? You simply do not get the student experience when living at home and for music I think its not great.

Obvioulsy my DD was not quick enough for the £1 tickets for the ROH. Nonetheless, all music students will want to avail themselves of great music and many parents would fund this, even if it is £10 a ticket!! Still a bargain.

PresentingPercy · 04/05/2021 13:59

Actually the ROH website say the student tickets are £10.You have to register as a student with them. Maybe schools tickets are cheaper?