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!

I’m still amazed at how many people top up to the maximum loan amount. It certainly wasn’t the expectation when I went to uni in 2013. It also wasn’t the norm amongst my friends.

@PinkPlantCase the reasoning is generally that someone has worked out the maximum loan amount as the amount that students need to live on, and that if it wasn’t for the parental income, that would be the amount that the student would receive - so why should the student be penalised because of the parental income...

When I went to uni (a very long time ago!) generally the student finance award letter would say ‘you will receive x, and the assumed parental contribution for the year is y’ which was a far clearer way of doing things.

In 2013 it was still a mixture of loans and grants.

I reckon it still comes as a total shock to many parents that students don't all receive the same loan amount.

@PinkPlantCase

I’m still amazed at how many people top up to the maximum loan amount. It certainly wasn’t the expectation when I went to uni in 2013. It also wasn’t the norm amongst my friends.

We deduct the rent/bills then see what is left. Then we work out how much they realistically need, taking everything into account that will come up during the year. Then we top it up to that amount. No idea if that takes us up to maximum loan.

We reduced our DS2’s amount drastically over the last year as he had some residual student loan and covid lockdowns meant he wasn’t really spending anything other than food. Any amounts we’d budgeted, that we didn’t give him, we’ve put to one side ready for year 3 (and year 1 for DS3)

@PinkPlantCase

I’m still amazed at how many people top up to the maximum loan amount. It certainly wasn’t the expectation when I went to uni in 2013. It also wasn’t the norm amongst my friends.

University funding has changed massively so it's not really relevant what happened in 2013. It is now absolutely the expectation that parents top up their DC's loan amount. Martyn Lewis (MSE) has spoken about it at some length.

I think the problem is that parents are not told this . You don’t get something that says.. “ your dc will get 4K.. you have an income of xxxx therefore you need to give them 5k so that he has as least the same as someone on the maximum loan which is what we think students can live on “

And then some unis have really high accommodation costs which would take out most of a maximum loan anyway. Dds intended uni’s accommodation fees are high but they give a £2k reduction on accommodation to students whose parental household income is less than £25k. This reduction is on a sliding scale. So those children of parents who earn more than £42k get nothing. The hint here is that parents should make up the difference ( hence the sliding scale on the uni website) so that all students should have at least a certain amount to live on after paying for accommodation...just like you do with the loan. But again .. all this is implied.

And if I’m honest .. it’s taken me a while to work it all out .

Agree - the need for parents to "top up" their adult student offspring is not transparent enough. Here's Martyn Lewis on the subject www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loan-parental-contribution-tool/guide/

Unfortunately the amount of grant you get is dependent on what your parents earn (if you're under 25). So there is an immediate link between parents and student money which the student can do nothing about.

Does anyone know which financial year the parent’s income is assessed on and whether you can ask for it be taken into account for the year they are studying? We have a family business and are seriously considering taking early retirement around the time our first starts Uni.

@BayTreey For my DS starting this September, we (also self-employed) had to give details of income for the 19/20 year, so I think it's for the year BEFORE the applications start (because applications for this year started last year, if you see what I mean ...)
But then right at the end there is the opportunity to declare whether your current year's earnings (21/22) is going to be considerably down on that. So I think you will have the opportunity to do this.
... I still can't understand, though, why earnings for 20/21 are ignored!!

I remember that my mum went pale when we received my grant amount, with the "suggested parental support" piece. I got nothing from my parents and had to work to cover my rent, etc. What I will say is that every graduate employer I interviewed with commented on the strength of my work history, and I had my choice of jobs.

My kids are not college age yet, but so far our plan is for them to take out loans for tuition fees, and if they hit a certain GPA that semester, we will repay the loan. If they doss their way through, they relay it themselves 😀 I do not foresee a situation where I'll be sending them hundreds of dollars a month for fun stuff.

To be clear - I am in the US but was born and raised (and educated) in the UK.

I also think this thread shows that many parents "these days" (old gimmer alert) are not willing to take a step back and let their kids experience a bit of hardship. Or, as I would call it, growing up a bit.

Our DS gets £90 per week from us

@KBILLY - what jobs did you do ? Did you work term time as well as in vacations?

Hostess yes the state used to be a lot clear - maximum would have been x you are getting Y so parent expect to make up the difference. I got £335 a year (minimum grant) (which after inflation between then and now is £1733) from 1979. I still have some paperwork some of which says parents should make it up - not sure if this image will work...

Wow @Xenia I don’t think they would get away with saying that now but it needs to be said.

@Cowbells Termtime I did a combination of retail (WH Smith, Boots) and PT office work, initially through a temp agency. Then in my third year I did PT call center work which was hard work though lucrative. In my vacations I did retail and whatever FT temp work I could get (including a few weeks in a meat pie factory of all places 😂)

I actually took a year "off" - ha - and worked seven days a week. FT in an office, then weekends doing retail.

Looking back now it seems like hard work, but when I was 18-22 it was a walk in the park. I'm glad I did it.

Wow @Xenia ..impressively blunt! ..but that is exactly what parents need to know now too

I got £410 in my first year (1981, minimums grant) & then they halved it in my second year I seem to remember. My parents used to do a deed of covenant of £150 a term I think.

And I worked in the holidays. No-one had term time jobs though.

My parents did a deed of covenant too as what they paid to you via that they could set against their income tax which is a system that might be fairer today but instead we have massive taxes but without all the allowances and tax reliefs like huge married man allowance, child tax allowances, covenants, tax relief on mortgage, - all gone and yet still upper rates of tax/NI of 47% plus 9% graduate tax for those with student loans.

Cooker my July 1981 says £410 a year too (minimum grant), up from £335 of the year before.

[quote KBILLY]@Cowbells Termtime I did a combination of retail (WH Smith, Boots) and PT office work, initially through a temp agency. Then in my third year I did PT call center work which was hard work though lucrative. In my vacations I did retail and whatever FT temp work I could get (including a few weeks in a meat pie factory of all places 😂)

I actually took a year "off" - ha - and worked seven days a week. FT in an office, then weekends doing retail.

Looking back now it seems like hard work, but when I was 18-22 it was a walk in the park. I'm glad I did it.[/quote]
Wow - you really did work hard to do all that on top of uni studies.

I'd forgotten, but I worked too - in a florists shop over Christmas and Easter and as a tour guide in the summer months. Still had debts when I left though, and worked two jobs to pay them off. That was in the days when if you wanted two jobs, you could get them within a few days of looking.

I was at uni from 87 to 90 and I don’t remember hardly anyone working at university but we all had holiday jobs. I had a fantastic job every holiday in a really nice French high-end fashion shop 5 mins walk from my house - 10am start, accounts at the record shop to buy anything to play in the shop AND in the patesserie across the road for croissants, 50% discount, and at the end of every holiday they would shut the shop early and throw me a leaving party (fully aware I would be back in a few months) ❤️
I was the best dressed person at uni