Taking full loan if not needing to? Does this year's changes affect that?

[Wellawareofprivilege]

As my user name suggests, I'm well aware of the fortunate position my children are in here.
Child 1 is finishing uni next year. One of the grandparents gave dc1 a lump sum of £5.5k at the start of uni. Following all the financial advice we'd seen, dc1 decided to take out the full fees loan and the minimum maintenance loan that they were entitled to, and put the money into a savings account (I think an ISA).
Dc2 will be starting uni this year. The grandparent will do the same. Our position is the same so dc2 will still take out full fees loan and minimum maintenance loan for the 34 years of the course. But they could choose to reduce that by £5.5k (ie approx £55k total instead of approx £60k total).
Does that make enough difference to be sensible? Fwiw I would expect dc2 to be a higher earner as money is a significant motivating factor for them although of course I've actually no idea whether they really will be.

We are not in a position to have paid the loans and maintenance but we are fortunate to be able to give DCs a small lump sum and cover shortfall in maintenance and some extra. We have money that will be given to pay towards a deposit or if needed a buffer from leaving uni and starting work. It not even been a consideration to pay towards the loan amount.

Only opt not to take the maximum loans available to you if you can afford to cover all fees and maintenance. Having loans of £55k rather than £66k makes no difference once interest is accruing. Better to have that £5k in your pocket.

I agree with Hill. (and am a mother who paid all the fees and maintenance so mine do not have any loans)

Yrs, agree, no loan at all would be nice tjo impossible for most; reducing the loan by a few thousand seems pretty pointless.

Better to spend the cash on a car if needed, or put towards a house or rental deposit tbh.

Ok thank you.
I was trying to do the maths and I thought that was likely the case but couldn't be sure I was right.
Really helpful - thank you.

The loan is basically a 9% graduate tax on income over the threshold (if you ever have income over the threshold and if you never do is a gift from tax payers to students). So it is not like a normal loan at all in many senses.

We paid off DT’s student loans but waited until they got their first graduate jobs (in case they went into jobs which were likely to remain under the repayment threshold). Both of the DT’s moved to mainland Europe on graduation so more straightforward to pay it off.

My son's friend's mother just paid her son's off too when she took her pension - she used her 25% tax free lump sum from that. to do it and he is very pleased (lucky boy or man I should say....)