How much should dd contribute to Uni costs?

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We are planning ahead for September 2022 and I’m not sure what is fair?

DD’s loan will not cover her yearly rent so we will pay the approx. £1500 shortfall, that seems obvious. I’ll carry on paying for her phone too and the cost of everything she needs to take with her.

But then I don’t really know what she will need to live on, and how much we should give her towards that.

We don’t have any spare income or savings and I’ll be getting a job to pay for her expenses and to cover the fact I won’t have Carers Allowance coming in when she goes away.

She has some savings but cannot get any work while studying so I’m not sure if it’s fair for her to run those savings down completely. But then isn’t this the kind of thing that savings are for?

Would love to hear other opinions on what is reasonable- we’ve always supported the kids financially in every way and now I don’t know how to gently start sharing financial costs, especially given that she can’t earn for herself.

It's difficult because every family situation is different.

IF your DD does not qualify for the full maintenance loan, parents are expected to make up the difference from what the student gets to the maximum. But that often is not enough to live on - rent and cost of living varies so much from place to place.

My DS get the minimum loan. So far we have paid his accommodation cost and phone. He lives off his min. loan. This worked last year as he was in halls, and with covid/lockdowns he wasn't going out much etc. This year he is in a private rental house share. The rent is more than the halls and doesn't include bills, so I'm guessing we will have to find more. He has tried looking for jobs, but no luck so far.

My dd works one evening and Saturday in a supermarket. It gives her about £600 pcm which is plenty really. There’s lots of work about at the moment, bars, cafes etc.
Mant students combine study and work, many don’t too but if money is tight then a part time job is an obvious solution. My nephew is a delivery biker, logs on does a few deliveries, logs off again. I appreciate that is not for everyone though

Why can't she work while studying?

I had 2 PT jobs all the way through uni.

Many uni websites have some sort of info on costs of living as a student, see if you can find those as a guideline.
Our approach was more or less to pay for her 'needs', and let her pay for her 'wants' from her own savings. She couldn't work in termtime but did in the summer vacs - if your DD can do that it's a good idea both financially and experience-wise.

Marks and spencer is looking for Xmas staff right now and lots of other shops will be too.

Is she unable to earn because of her disability ? If so, is she planning to work after she graduates?

I’m not convinced that she should be allowed to protect her own savings while you have none. And why you have to get a job to support her while she doesn't have to get a job to support herself.

Perhaps there’s another important piece of information that you are not telling us?

I like the idea of using the maximum loan as a benchmark - so we will try and fund her the difference, and then she can use savings on top of that.

@GenderAtheist yes, her disability will make it impossible to work and study at the same time but we envisage her working after her degree.

Your question is really my key conundrum. I suppose I feel bad asking her to spend her savings but then I also feel a bit miffed that I’ll be getting a job to keep funding her …. But then isn’t that just my parental responsibility?

I take it your DD is disabled as you mention you had carers allowance for her and she cannot earn money for herself.

Does she get PIP? Has she applied for Disabled Student Allowance?

My DD19 is also disabled and in her 2nd year uni in Scotland. She cannot work and study due to her disabilities. We give her £260/mo for food and incidentals. We pay for bus pass separately in 12week increments, and her rent/utilities are paid for as well.

If your DD gets PIP and DSA, that should cover her food and incidentals tbh with a bit left over to save.

Is she claiming PIP?

Everyone's situation will be different but here are some specifics from our family in case it is useful.
My daugher had minimum loan. I topped up to make up to enough to cover rent (which included bills). She had a summer job but did not have term-time job. I continued to pay phone & also £50 per week she was in Uni. I plucked this figure out of the air as enough to ensure she didn't go without but not enough that she wouldn't need to work at her holiday job (which I think was good for her well-being generally). She was at a Northern university so living costs slightly cheaper than some areas.

She gets PIP of approx £350 pm but she will be need some cater support at Uni and the LA are already talking about making her contribute to that cost from her PIP.

We haven’t started that argument in full yet but I’ll fight that so hopefully most, if not all, will be available to her.

@notsohot thanks, we also thought £50 pw seemed a good starting point although she does have extra costs due to her disability but it’s a good guide I think, and sort of fits in with matching the maximum loan.

How about doing a budget together?

Will she be living in halls? Many of the essentials will be known costs, add a bit for other things, 20% contingency then ask her to revise the estimate monthly.

My parents had lived abroad, so had no idea of costs and were only entitled to minimum grant (late 70's) so we did a budget and revised it as we went along.

There were also set up costs which they very kindly 'wrote off' after the first month when we had a much better handle on costs.

Doing it this way made me very conscious of the relative costs of things and also made me feel amazingly grown up and in charge of my own fate. I also did some trade offs that I didn't expect them to countenance, like hitch hiking and logging coach fares.

How does she propose to fund the shortfall? Has she mentioned using her savings? It's a conversation you need to have together, with an idea of what you'll offer.

I am planning to top up to max amount with DS and then leave him to work out if he wants to live within that budget or find a way to get more money.

Totally agree that we need to discuss and budget together.

DD wouldn’t mind using her savings I’m sure, I just don’t know what’s a “fair” balance between us and her. I want to have that straight in my head before we start joint planning.

Matching the maximum loan seems sensible. The whole system (right back to the days of grants) was that parental contribution should make up the shortfall if not awarded the maximum.

Then there's the extra issue of whether the maximum loan will actually cover the cost of living at the university where she wishes to study. That depends very much on the student's choice of where, plus for your DD any extra requirements because of her disability. So figures from other families might not be terribly helpful.

Could she work during at least some of her vacations?

There's a means tested loan amount that's based on parental income, and you need to make up the difference between the loan amount that she is entitled to, based on your family income, and the maximum loan amount. That is the minimum that you should pay, and given that it is means tested, it will be affordable (remember you will be making savings at home when your DD is living at uni).

Anything else you want to give her is up to you. I would normally expect students to work to earn extra money for spends (their loan amount + parental top up should cover basic necessities, but not necessarily social life etc), but your DD's disability will make a difference here. Does she get PIP or DLA?

I appreciate that figures will vary massively but it’s still really helpful to gauge the split of parental contribution v asking child to step up eg by working.

I doubt she could work except in the long summer holidays potentially. It’s something we’ll think about at the end of her first year but not before.

OP, when you fill in the form for the Student Finance ask for a Current Year Assessment. You will see the form on the website. This is because your household income will go down the year she goes, due to your loss of carers allowance.

She will then be entitled to more loan.

Possibly at a level which triggers a bursary from the Uni. One of my Dc gets £1,450 a year from the Uni because he is from a low income household. It isn’t part of the loan and doesn’t have to be repaid!

Also as she is disabled she may be entitled to it offered extra help from the Uni. Dc’s friend has a health condition and was offered a free laptop.

I have a big problem with the rationale that it’s means tested therefore it’s affordable! It bases the loan on income, not expenditure and commitments so I can assure you this is not in any way affordable for us. I will be getting a job as we will be worse off. But that’s the system we’re stuck with.

Is her rent going to be £11k a year because of her care needs? (which is roughly the maximum maintenance loan plus the £1.5k that you are topping up). If that is the case I would talk to the university to see what additional grants they have available for students with additional needs. Or is she able to apply for the carers allowance to use that to pay for some of the accommodation charges, since I assume a big chunk of that must be care rather than just accommodation. Maybe they would even give you a breakdown of how the fees are calculated.

That would at least mean her accommodation/care costs were covered and you could start with your £1.5k being her extra money. That’s about £50 a week. Not an amazing amount for some weeks of student socialising but not bad as purely discretionary spending. She could use her savings to top those up. And it might focus her mind on increasing the savings between now and starting in University. My youngest starts university at the same time and with his weekend / holiday job he will have saved loads more by the time he goes.

I doubt she could work except in the long summer holidays potentially. It’s something we’ll think about at the end of her first year but not before.

This is possible, but hiring discrimination against disabled seems strong in U.K. per my DDs experience/impressions this past summer. She did not get any of the jobs she applied for so ended up in a volunteer position for the summer.

@EdgeOfTheSky thank you, but we will still be just over the limit unfortunately.

She will get help via DSA for additional things she needs due to her disability but not for basic living.

I don’t think we can claim to be low income by anyone’s standards even though we can’t actually afford this! so I’m sure well be funding it all ourselves.

My DS get the minimum loan. I pay his accommodation which is about £6k a year and he lives on his loan plus an extra £60 a month from me. I pay his phone too.

I’m in a position to do this for him and I would prefer he didn’t need to work in term time (if he wants to work that’s entirely his decision). Because I can afford to I see my responsibility to support him to the end of his undergrad degree. If he decides to do a masters etc I’ll have to think carefully how he manages that. I suspect I’d expect him to find the tuition himself and live at home whilst he studies