How are students going to afford cost of living?

[Tigerblue4]

Anyone concerned how their DC are going to afford the cost of living this year?

DD is her final year, so gets less - £5800. She's just signed a rental contract of £7900 for the year (on the lower side of rental in the area). We've agreed to give her £400pm, until she returns home in June. I reckon she's going to be left with £160pm a month to cover food and bills, she just won't be able to do it. She's some distance from home so cost is usually £100 one way (she has always gone with cheapest option).

She's still on her year abroad, but has five days work lined up starting the day after she gets back. Very hard to get work in her uni city as there are three large unis within a short distance - only ever got one interview and they told her she didn't have nearly enough experience - she's worked in cafe, high end hospitality, shop and age verification work.

Yeah yeah i know all this but I am still incredulous that people choose to be so very far away from home.

1. it costs a fortune in travel as the op states
2. what if there is an emergency of dome kind? What if the student is taken ill and needs support? How quickly can you get to them?
3. what if they actually WANT to come home for the weekend but find it is going cost hundreds and take forever?

I naively assumed all student lets included bills as the uni my son is at does not accredit/champion/ recommend any agencies that don't do this.

That said 'fair use' policy can trip them up if it's not realistic.

If my kids had a rental with bills included I'd suggest they have a good look at what fair use actually means in their contract.

Just had a quick look online and this article suggests that students with tenancy's with bills included might end up having to pay or partly pay for the increase in the cost of energy. Oh dear. That's not good. Understandable from a landlord point of view though.

Oops forgot to include the article HERE

DS is going to Uni near to where I have a business trip next month.
With railcard, off peak times, DS will be able to visit us at home for £30.

Day trip rail fare for me, doing 4 advance fare deals each way, to the work meeting will cost at least £110 (!!)
Else £175 for regular ticket.
I told DH I'm looking forward to being eligible for senior rail card.

Anyway, both of DDs (London) flats had heating and hot water included in rent, Multi-story multi-flat buildings where I imagine the greater concern was pipes bursting if allowed to go cold. So only lekki to worry about, split between 4, all the parents can help out, they will manage. DS will be in student halls so energy included (this winter).

That's a thought: people turning off their heating, will it lead to more burst pipes?

Ds has gone back into halls for his final year as bills are included and we couldn't have another year of unexpectedly high bills, he's also got a full time job over the summer that he's hoping to consolidate hours for, so do 3 x 12 hour shifts a week until after Christmas when he will need to leave and concentrate on finals

For Dd they are only to a set amount. They've already been warned by the landlord that the included amount will not be enough, and that's before this last increase. So I'm assuming we will paying a chunk of extra money at some point this year. Have talked about how to save energy but obviously we can't control what her flat mates so? Though we will only pay for a share of the extra costs. We've earned Dd to remind her flatmates to avoid using things like fans and heaters.

Sorry everyone, I was think about facts for somewhere else. The distance is 340miles🙄. Only three unis offered the degree DD wanted, three of which were in Scotland. The course and uni nearest really weren't right for DD. Going into year 4 and the degree was definitely right for DD and what she wants to do.

I'll remind DD about a rail card - every little helps. She's currently finishing a year abroad