Probably a dumb question - but where do you find the money from to support your student DC?

[Wowzers71]

Hi

Eldest DD is 17 and will likely be heading to uni in Autumn 2023 (assuming she doesn't stuff up her exams). I'm only now starting to get my head round how the finances of this might work. DH and I earn over £65k a year so DD would only get the minimum loan, and having had a wee look on several threads about money on here it sounds like many of you are paying around £600 a month on accommodation for your DC. That seems like a lot of money!
So how do you afford it? Are we just rubbish with money? I just can't think that we will be able to drop £600 a month without really tightening our belts. And we've got a younger DD too, so there's no way I'd be able to support them both. Am I missing something? Or should I brace myself for "the porridge years...."?

And think of all those students paying for accommodation they weren't living in during the pandemic lockdowns (particularly the first).

This - though DD1 got lucky. Her landlord only charged 10% of the full rent while she and her peers were at home during lockdown. Wonderful, ethical landlord.

@pointythings that's good to hear. Glad to know that there are some ethical landlords out there.

@LouisCatorze - many suffered financial loss to Covid including landlords who would have had no government support whilst having mortgages etc to pay.

So the ethical thing would be for the landlord to bear the brunt of the losses?

More ethical than expecting the students to pay full rent, I'd say.

@Maggiethecat No, the ethical thing would have been to have a conversation between the landlords and students to assess their individual circumstances. Not all landlords have mortgages/debts to pay and some students stayed in their rented accommodation(rather than return home to vunerable family members/didn't have another home to return to etc).

My daughter had to pay March to August, no discussion even though the landlord had refused entry for six weeks at start of tenancy for building works with no reduction in rent. Definitely no mortgage payments. She choose to not return to her university town for the final year, through fear of it happening again. As did many of her peers, resulting in a much reduced student experience even without considerations of Covid. Many students were simply unable to raise the finances( few summer jobs, part-time term time hospitality/retail jobs decimated).

I don't know how many landlords would have considered students' finances, whether on loan/partially funded by parents etc when making a decision to discount rent and considering the immediate need to make mortgage payments.

I believe that many would have. However, I feel that there is an expectation that ultimately the landlord should be first to step up to losing out. If there is little or not rental income then the landlord should rely on savings perhaps to pay the mortgage?

I gladly paid dd's rent during lockdown. She didn't lose anything by being at home. SFE didn't reduce the entitlement for students who remained at home during that year. Why should the landlord lose out.

A lack of landlords willing to rent to students pushes prices up and makes things very difficult.

@Takeittotheboss - I cross posted with you.

I don't know how many people know their landlord's financial situation but feel that many assumptions are made, commonly that they're minted.

I agree that the reasonable thing would be to have discussions to try to mitigate each party's losses, not just students.

I think this quite a lot when I see people lambasting landlords for collecting their due rent. I've never seen any of these posters - even the ones who managed to get rent back - offering to give away their student loan to people affected by the pandemic

@Comefromaway and @Kite22 - I hope that Dd will find decent/ reasonably priced accommodation after her first year.

I have no delusions about the role of private accommodation landlords - they provide a supply for financial gain. I don’t imagine for a moment that they’re motivated by altruism.

We paid all the accommodation costs for DS and DD, through uni out of income - we both wanted them to put all their efforts into getting a first, and second having the social life, we had at university (we both got virtually maximum grants).

We overpaid our mortgage, so it was paid off before the first went to university. I upped my hours to earn the extra £6,000 Pa for their accommodation (I had other responsibilities and couldn’t work full time). We had holidays in the UK rather than abroad, and didn’t redecorate our house for years!

DD is paying more! She is going to work all summer though to make up the difference. I gave her the budget, matching what we are paying this year, she choose something more expensive, so she will pay the difference.

*Ie parents paying 4.5 - 6k

The norm?*

Yes, that is what the government expects!

@Maggiethecat I totally agree. And I think many landlords particularly take the 'P' with students. They are certainly not in the rentals market out of the goodness of their heart!

It depends on your family income as to what you are expected to pay. Anyone with an income under £25k isn’t expected to contribute but anyone with an income over £62k is expected to contribute just over £5k

I’m a single mum on around 30k so DD qualifies for almost full loan amount and I support her with £150 a month. She’s good a budgeting because she knows that if she runs out of money there is no financial safety net for her because I simply don’t have it. My ex ran up huge debts which I paid off over years so I had no savings.

She works in term time for the uni as a student ambassador and as a content creator for them which fits in around her studies. She has another job she does in the holidays. I have a younger DD also about to go to uni and will support her with the same amount.

The girls both did after school clubs when they were at school and the money I spent on those now goes to them directly as financial support for uni so I’ve not noticed a massive difference in expenditure.

It depends on your family income as to what you are expected to pay. Anyone with an income under £25k isn’t expected to contribute but anyone with an income over £62k is expected to contribute just over £5k

I know that; two DC have gone through uni. However, if the average full time salary in the UK in 2021 was £31,285, then many couples with both working full time, are likely to be earning over £62,000 pa, and are therefore expected to contribute over £5k! My guess is that is closer to the norm, especially in the South East and all the counties round and within London?

It's the norm in my part of the north too.

Yes. I think parents of children starting secondary school should be told by the schools that if they both work full time they are likely to have to be able to find about £5k to make the minimum loan up to what someone from a very badly off background will have from the state.

For me the big change was daughters £1k fees (plus rents) and son £3k and rent and then 10 years on twins £9250 fees each plus rents - big difference but I wanted to treat them the same so still (as I work full time etc) made sure they had no student loans.

Yes. I think parents of children starting secondary school should be told by the schools that if they both work full time they are likely to have to be able to find about £5k to make the minimum loan up to what someone from a very badly off background will have from the state. You have a valid point there, @Xenia . Very invested parents will already be aware of the full financial implications but not everyone (even on MN) will totally be.