How much allowance do you give your student dc to live on per week

[FlamingHot]

Or per month? Dd’s halls of residence and course fees will be covered by us and student loads.

We’re not sure how much she’ll need for food/nights out etc. Her halls will be self catered only.

Thanks!

Yes, that's true. £100k after tax/NI of £33k is about £5500 a month net. 9% on a £50k loan on the balance of your £100k salary over 26k at 9% is £555 a month roughly.
Your rent might be £1.5k to £2k a month in London (could be £3k actually in some cases I know) although you could live further out etc and share a room or have a worse house.
5500 less 1500 rent and 555 loan = 3445 and you could certainly save out of that. It is a bit harder if you go out a lot or are savings for a mortgage or have child care at £2k per baby to pay a month.

Anyway most parents go the loan route and it works out fine. I was just explaining why I chose not to do so and even with my van driver son he and I are still pleased he had no student loan.

@cowbells yes those on a higher income can pay it off but I can see why parents anticipating high salaries pay upfront. The majority of students don’t pay it off and the government milks the higher earners by charging them an extortionate interest rate to make up for the lower earners.
This is not a thread for a discussion on the moralities of how university education is funded, however, more one for everyone to work out how the rules effect them.

@Iggii

I got £400 a month back in 1993 and it was barely enough then (self catering)

I'm sure you must be mis-remembering (or maybe you had to pay rent out of your £400 as well?)

I lived off £37 a week income support for 6 months in around 1995. That had to cover bills, food and anything else (but not rent). My parents used to pay for my train fare for me to come and visit them 3 times a year. IIRC £7 was bills, £20 was food and £10 was going out :)

@Cowbells the interest starts accruing when the loan is given not when you start paying it off. So if the idea is that a high earning DC pays it off straight away, it may be false economy

[quote chopc]@Cowbells the interest starts accruing when the loan is given not when you start paying it off. So if the idea is that a high earning DC pays it off straight away, it may be false economy [/quote]
I am embarrassed to admit I don't understand this. I don't get why paying it off in a lump sum wouldn't be cheaper than paying it back slowly over time, if the interest is linked to income.

The interest rate whilst you are studying is a set rate (retail price index plus 3%)

On graduation the interest is linked to your earnings.

This is a really interesting thread, particularly as DH and I were just chatting about it. I am not from the UK, so the whole Uni system is a mystery to me. DS will go to Uni in September. We are planning to pay DS' tuition and accommodation, which is fully catered. No student loans.

At the moment he gets a £100 per month allowance to cover his socialising costs (not much in lockdown!), we pay for his phone, haircuts and transport via Oyster card. He pays for snacks, cinema, eating out with friends, trips to pub, gifts for girlfriend and family, and a few bits of clothing. We would buy more expensive items like trainers and jackets for birthdays and Christmas.

We are keen that he learn to budget so will probably keep up the monthly allowance but not sure how much to change it to. I will not be expecting him to work while at Uni, certainly not in term time. I am currently thinking £250 per month for 'beer' money' ? Does that sound ridiculously generous? He eats an enormous amount and will definitely need to top up the self-catered calories. I don't want my 6foot2inch baby to starve .

www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes/

Here’s a good summary of the fees and repayments.

@Cowbells nope you haven't misunderstood. My point is if DC likely to go into a high earning career and will be in a situation where it's best for them to pay off loan straight away, they will already have accrued interest from the time the loan was given so perhaps 3-5years worth of interest depending on career path

@LividBlabber

I always read these agog (and a tiny bit jealous).

When I went it was just assumed I’d take the maximum loan and get a job. I didn’t get anything else financially.

I worked 25 hours a week in Blockbuster while I got my Russell Group 2:1, which tells you how long ago it was.

(My baby has a long way to go until he’s at uni but I’m sure he’ll want for nothing)

Me too! Demanding degree at Newcastle. No financial support from my parents at all (they had no money.) I worked PT in term time then FT every holiday, without exception. I'm amazed at how coddled some of these kids are, to be honest.

@Xenia how does your van driver DS glad he didn't take out a student loan? Is it because of his socialist beliefs? Because he is unlikely to have ever needed to pay it back if he stays on his current chosen path?

I will not be expecting him to work while at Uni, certainly not in term time.

Why not, @Vargas? Unless he's doing a particularly demanding course, he'll have time. Surely you'd expect him to work during the holidays?

1999. I got the full loan. My parents gave me £20 a week. It was a big struggle and I wasn't even going out drinking. I applied for hardship grants and eventually just worked throughout uni. I get angry now thinking about it as once I moved out, they rented my room out for about £600 a month (central London) so they made a profit from me moving out while I was scraping by.

@KBILLY yes I am expecting him to work in the holidays, he's got a few things in the pipeline.

I'm not sure his course is any more demanding than normal, but I think he may find the transition to semi-independent life a bit of a challenge so I'd like him to concentrate on his studies, at least for the first year. He's a hard worker academically so I'm not particularly concerned about him slacking...well not yet anyway. Plus I'm hoping he'll do lots of sport and just have a really nice time at Uni before hitting the real world!

I wanted my DDs to do holiday activities and term time activities that enhanced their cvs. It wasn’t about working in Mac Donald’s. It was a bit more nuanced than that. I don’t really care if they appeared coddled but we have the money to choose a different lifestyle and tailor what they did to their careers. Worked for them and no doubt working in MacDonalds works for others. I don’t see either path is worthy of criticism. Getting holiday jobs isn’t a given in the countryside either. No buses so parents end up paying!

@PresentingPercy

I agree

chopc it could be (1) not haveing burdened the state in the old fashioned way that people used to be ashamed and thought it wrong to claim benefits to which they are entitled or (2) helping others by letting the state have the money to help others or (3) might avoid some admin or may be might earn more later or the rules might change or something like that.

Wow can't believe how little students live off! I did nursing (2008-2011) and got a £650 bursary per month and a maintenance loan which paid all off my rent 🙈 I had a job earning me another couple hundred a month and i was STILL skint.

@PresentingPercy - DT’s spent their first Uni winter break staying with cousins in Colorado teaching skiing to the under 5’s. I’m hoping this taught them patience. They also spent their first summer working for a company in Brussels giving walking tours to tourists. As they both got offered their first post grad jobs at the end of the second Uni year, hopefully these were useful skills to have on their CV.

@Parker231
Significantly more upmarket than MacDonalds then and clearly jobs that only the well off could afford. It also shows the difference between those with connections and those without. Mine had to find their own work and volunteering opportunities. We are parents with no contacts.

DT’s applied for the jobs themselves. The help they had was having relatives in the places they applied for holiday work so somewhere to stay (small compensation for having no family in the U.K.).
I didn’t mind where they worked - financially they didn’t need a holiday job but there was no way they were spending all their Uni breaks doing nothing constructive.

Loads of dc have no relatives here but parents cannot afford the airfare x 2 to Denver. Going there with no living costs is a huge privilege. I’m sure you know that though.

@Vargas - genuinely, the £100pm you currently give him, on top of everything else you are planning to pay for would be plenty for most students.
£250 is far more than any of mine have to live on and none of mine have been catered - so all their food, toiletries etc (and haircuts) come out of that.

I mean, if your dc are used to a luxurious lifestyle and you have the funds to continue to fund it, then great, but if you are actually asking what they will need, then, no, he won't need that much.

@PresentingPercy

Loads of dc have no relatives here but parents cannot afford the airfare x 2 to Denver. Going there with no living costs is a huge privilege. I’m sure you know that though.

THIS with knobs on, the jobs being described have nothing to do with getting by and paying rent. They are lifestyle choices which boost the cv by showing you are that type of person who will fit in with the more privileged.

My daughter worked for a holiday company abroad in university holidays - no contacts of ours, just applied like anyone in the Uk could apply (and yes even in 2021 this summer that same company is offering holidays and needs British staff abroad unless everything is cancelled again this summer). The holiday company pays your air fare and feeds you out there and houses you and you get a bit of cash although usually only enough to pay for your drinks and fun.

However on how much you need at university other than parents making minimum loan up to maximum it is how long is a piece of string. My sons have more than most as we are reasonably well off but even they have friends with more. there is always someone better or worse off.