How much money in total does your student in halls receive?

[WombatChocolate]

I’ve read a number of similar threads. People often talk about ‘paying accommodation’ and then the student living on their minimum maintenance loan, but these don’t give total figures of how much it is costing to live.

Please could people say how much the total to cover everything is. I’m not so interested in whether it comes from parents or loans or grandparents, but the total given and the city/area they study in.

I think this would be really useful info for myself and others with teens setting off in the autumn. We can then work out how much we might need to give them, knowing how much maintenance loan our individual circumstances will mean they get.

I guess I’m interested to know if people are topping up, to the full maintenance loan or significantly beyond this.

Ds gets about £7k loan; I top up as a weekly SO which totals about £1200 (but weekly so he can’t spend it all) plus occasional extras for specific spends (big night out, sports kit, funds for a trip) which probably amounts to another £1 k at least (tbh I haven’t totalled that up!!).

So in total roughly the max loan.

I am very aware that he does not have much, esp with CoL meaning even basic food has shot up. Dd had a similar loan and a similar SO but very few extra funds. But her uni time was affected by Covid so a) she couldn’t go out b) a lot of it she was at home. Also ds is a lot more social and does a sport which is quite spendy (both subs/kit and fitness work needed).

Students at ds’s uni seem to be well off and a lot of ppl he knows went to private school so parents maybe have more spare cash, which makes it tough for him.

A lot! But DD's flat costs £200 p/w all in. So minimum loan of £4.5k, we give extra £3.5k for rent, plus £550 per month allowance. However, she pretty much pays for everything for that. All food, social, gym, travel, driving lessons, clothes, contacts, new glasses. She is very good at budgeting. She even saves some. She also works some shifts at a local cafe when she is at home for the holidays so this Easter for example earnt an extra £500.

The usual expectation is that parents top up to the maximum loan.

It’s expected that people top up to the maximum loan amount but in some areas that doesn’t even cover accommodation.
which uni?

£8000 total term time (Edinburgh).

Thanks. Just trying to get a sense of whether giving the extra to take the minimum loan amount to the maximum (about £10k) in total will be enough. KnittedCardi’s DC sounds like they are getting about £14k which is substantially more than the £10k.

Catered halls (shared bathroom) are looking like being around £8k, so is £2k (meaning he will have had the £10k max loan amount) enough for spending money for 3 terms? The catering covers all 21 meals, but I know snacks etc will be needed.

He will only get the minimum loan. So we are looking at topping up to the £10k maximum, but is that enough?

DC is likely to have a holiday job, but I want to be sure we are giving him enough and if he doesn’t get a holiday job, can still manage. Currently he’s not a big drinker but who knows if that might change. I don’t feel he needs loads of cash for £100 nights out, but I do want him to be able to participate

Assuming you are in England probably worth bearing in mind that the maintenance loan has fallen well behind inflation. The IFS did an analysis of this - from memory topping up to the maximum loan still leaves a shortfall of around £1500 against where the max should be; this is the outside of London figure. Rather than just under than £10k therefore c. £11.5k is a more realistic figure.

DS doesn’t have any loans or grants, we are paying for it all.

Annual uni fee is the standard 9.2k.

His accommodation costs us 8.5k a year and his lease is for 51 weeks per year.

And then we give him £350 per month to live on.

Both my kids receive an amount equal to the maximum loan. On top of that we pay for travel home (if not driving them) and phones. For them, so far, that has been enough, but their accommodation is relatively cheap - slightly less than the minimum loan. One child is at Oxford and so far has only paid for accommodation in term time. Younger child is at Lancaster, in some of their cheaper (shared bathroom, not catered) accommodation on campus, so only paying for academic year. Next year his accommodation costs will be more he as will be in private accommodation on 12 month contract (about £120 a week, I think?) so intend to contribute more, but probably not as much as the whole difference. I want to incentivise him to work over the summer!

DS's costs for this year:

Tuition fees: £9250 (student finance)

Accommodation: just under £4000 per year for en suite single room (we pay this directly, as our parental contribution).

Other living costs: £4524 (basic maintenance loan): he doesn't spend it all, and has saved some which will pay for his living costs during his internship abroad this summer.

(Cambridge)

Specific to your question. 2 at uni this year and last academic year. Minimum loan, albeit one doing a masters this year so a different loan set up for that.

we therefore pay accommodation for both and have tbh got off pretty lightly . All singing and dancing self-catered hall last year was just under 5.5k for DS3, private rental inclusive of bills this year about £1k less than that. However he is a looong way from home, and therefore travel costs be that train / car; plus hotels, eating out if we go to visit add probably that 1k back on.

the other DC has even lower accommodation costs, private rental only around 3k plus bills. So last year he lived on the min loan, this year after masters fees he has around 3k left, so we, pay accommodation plus top up back to the min loan equivalent of his DB.

all in therefore this year we’ll be paying £10k min which for two is, compared with many, a bot of a bargain.

Bit of a bargain even

Again, thank you. Those figures that reflect how much they have to cover everything for the year are really helpful.

I can see that perhaps £11.5k is a more helpful figure than £10k to be looking to provide as a total. The £8k catered halls for first year are expensive, but I think catered is worth it in the first year, especially at a uni where most are catered in their first year. The benefit is that the contract is for a shorter period and less extra money will be needed.

I agree that expecting the to work over the summer is a good thing. I know lots do work in term time, but I’m keen to avoid that if possible. However, working for Perhaps 6 weeks over the summer could boost the coffers and provide more treat money.

I suspect that beyond a certain point, most will spend whatever they have. If there is spare cash, they might choose more takeaways, more drinks when out etc. I certainly want them to have a good social life, but if DC turns into a party animal (hasn’t so far…but who knows) then I think they need to expect to fund some of that themselves.

I think I’m going to work on a basis of them having £11.5k. As they make their final decision about accommodation,knowing that’s the budget I think will be helpful…they can work out how much they have left over each week, if they go for the £8k accommodation option, or some of the alternatives.

We are budgeting 9-10k / year

That's accommodation (£140.- / week) and living expenses.

This is made up from:
Student maintenance loan
Savings
Bursary
Bank of Mum & Dad

Max loan+bursary+some extras. I would say they have £120 per week after rent and bills. And they live comfortably on that eg some clothes, gym, take aways, don’t need to get a job termtime. Terms can differ from 8-13 weeks so a weekly amount might be more useful. Main thing to budget for is the second year housing deposit and summer rent - you may be paying a deposit Dec/Jan of first year and 3 months rent around 1 July - when they won’t get their loan for following year until Autumn. The unis give a bursary because hall rents are high compared to max loan to ensure students have c£4k pa after hall rent is paid. So where hall rent was £7.5 those on max loan got £2k bursary (£11.5k). Looking at the bursary pages will give you an idea what uni thinks is needed after rent in that area.

It's hard to compare as different Universities vary in costs so much. We top up to the max loan. Once DD's deducted the accommodation (self catered halls), she has £80 a week left for everything else (so food, travel, clothes, toiletries, entertainment, books, etc). Some of her friends have more than she does, others less, so £80 a week seems pretty average. She's not in London but in another big city.

My dd’s costs are £9250 uni fee, £9150 self catered uni room 40 weeks
Plus i pay her £65 per week term time only to cover travel and sone food. She has a job where she earns £400 per month ish and gets free food when on shift.
This is plenty for her and she is saving a bit and should finish this year with £1500 in savings which she will spend on festivals no doubt

We pay DD £500 a month and then she has the minimum loan (though the London amount which is a bit more).

Similar to @KnittedCardi

Rent is £7,500 pa exc. utilities then we pay £550 p/m but that has to cover everything, such as food, utilities, socialising, travel, society memberships, petrol etc. The only extras I pay for is phone and car insurance. Mine works out of term term to pay for holidays and clothes and they manage to save throughout the year.

It honestly does depend on several factors. Does the course require materials such as books? Will you cover things like travel home and how many times a year? What kind of lifestyle do they expect to have at uni? Drinking every week, socialising, clubs, meals out, coffees from Starbucks etc? Then there is also things like Amazon and Netflix, phone contracts etc. Laundry, how much is that?

If they end up having money left over at the end of the term or year one do you want that back or will you reduce the amount for the following year? Will there be an open discussion about it?

We topped up to the maximum loan as Ds only got the minimum. From that it left £105 a week term time only after accommodation was paid. Laundry was £3.60 for washing and tumble drying was free for year one. Year two saw laundry go down to £3.30 but tumble drying is £1.90 (checked this weekend when we dropped him back) food shop is around £37 ish a week plus maybe a loaf of bread or some milk part way through. He is a meat eater, likes chicken and salmon.

Ds gets £50 a month for "going out" from a Grandparent too. We cover his phone contract as he is on the family plan, so I think £10pm.

For 2nd year we reduced it to an even £100 but his 2nd year accommodation was more expensive than uni halls as he is in private halls. He manages fine on the money, covers him over holidays for socialising and camping with his mates. He doesn't eat many takeaways, cooks a lot as in self catered and really enjoys cooking. Prefers drinking at someone's house than the pub as much cheaper. Is a saver, already has a LISA for a house deposit.

Living in Wales here so may not be relevant to you but DD receives maintenance loan/grant (proportion of grant dependant upon household income) of £11,700. This covers her accommodation costs (£130p/w) share house with friends as now going into second year which leaves her almost £5,000 as her "income" per week to live off, so around £130p/w (worked out over the academic year only).

Also meant to add that in her first (current year) laundry costs were high £3.20 for a wash and £1.50 for tumble dryer. So the uni gave each student in halls a lump sum of £90 at the start of term to contribute to laundry costs.

DD has done very well on her budget and doesn't expect to need to get a job in term time but will get one in the summer to bulk up her savings.

DD gets just over 4K, this is used to live on so food, trains, going out. As she's at uni for 42 weeks this averages at £100 per week.
We then pay her accommodation at £190 PW, Netflix, phone, Spotify, car insurance and send large supermarket deliveries once a term.

She works when back at home for extras eg holidays, but is unable to work at uni due to heavy course.

How much are you giving her in total?
Im trying to understand what the total spend (from loan, parents etc) is. Thanks.