Spending money

[youngones1]

How much spending money do you give your children at uni? I was thinking £500 per month would be reasonable.

@decionsdecisions62 So why no loan? Can she afford to eat?

No, no, not should. Nobody should be feeling that they have to top up to the maximum loan, whatever the government thinks.

There are a good many parents of uni students who, although they earn over the threshold for receiving anything other than the minimum, will find topping up to the maximum at least a stretch if not impossible. Our household income is just above the threshold. From September, we will have two students at uni, each receiving only the minimum loan. As it happens, we are mortgage free so finding £1000 a month is doable, but I imagine others earning similar to us who still have a mortgage to pay will find it nigh on impossible.

@TizerorFizz yes she got a loan. Hence why I didn't need to give her 'spending money'.

There’s a lot of people saying the same thing on this thread but using different language.

”Spending money” is used in this context by some to mean money that isn’t rent. So money for food, laundry, travel, sports etc. Not just “going out and getting pissed money”.

Some get full loan (c. 9.5k) some get minimum (c. 4.5k). Some parents pay the difference between the two “top up” to the full loan if on minimum, so contribute c. £5k. Then leave it to the DC to pay rent out of this. Rent on average is around £7-8k, depending on which city/uni/ensuite/year of rental etc etc. So potentially this student would pay £7k rent and therefore have £2.5k for food, laundry, travel, sports etc. They’d almost certainly need other funds from eg a holiday or part time job to top it up. some may be able to get cheaper accommodation eg shared bathroom etc for £6k, leaving £3.5k for other costs.

Others might get the minimum maintenance loan of £4.5k but their parents pay their rent of eg £7k, leaving them the £4.5k for food, laundry, travel, sports. They are unlikely to have to work to supplement their living costs.

And some do other stuff. But many do one of the above.

My daughter gets just under the full loan. That covers her rent and leaves her with around £80 per week, year round, for everything else. She saves £10 per week as standard and doesn't spend the full £70 most weeks. And of course over the breaks when she is at home she spends even less. She pays for her own sim only phone contract, which around £6 per month. I pay for Spotify for her.

She has a very busy social life at uni, but this year it hasn't involved as many nights out drinking and clubbing as it did in the first year. She takes good care of her belongings but is not materialistic or particularly bothered about the latest technology etc, and has generous relatives who buy her nice gifts at Christmas. So she rarely needs/wants new clothes etc. Her accomodation at uni is fairly basic. She has a shared bathroom etc.

It very much depends on their expectations and lifestyle, but it's definitely possible to live comfortably on less than £100 per week.

I find it odd that so many students want an en suite bathroom when they have not had one at home. It’s always going to be more expensive to do this and if money is short it’s a huge saving to have a shared bathroom.

Also many students don’t have generous relatives or grandparents. Many don’t get gifts that would be enough for a pair of shoes let alone pay for their phone. It’s always vital to look at costs and where savings can be made if budgets are tight.

“Spending money” sounds like what you take on holiday. Living expenses or maintenance are standard terms for uni expenditure.

Of course. It’s totally dependent on so many other things as well though eg.

do they have to pay for gym or sports if they do these. Memberships, equipment, clothing, travel to competitions etc.

what city they live in and where. So how do they get to nearest supermarket if they are in a big city centre and how much this supermarket charges vs the out of town one they may need to get a bus to

do they need to pay for travel to get to campus from their accommodation and how much this is

It’s not so easy to compare as there are so many variables.

I don’t find it odd that DC who went to private boarding schools are quite happy with shared bathrooms as that’s what they are used to.

People at state schools are often used to sharing a bathroom with family only. Some are quite happy at the thought of sharing a bathroom and some really aren’t. For example, my outgoing son is quite happy to share but my introverted daughter isn’t.

You have to get a new mindset though. If you need to save money that is. Often parents scrimp and save for that extra £1500 for an en suite. If you cannot afford it, have the conversation. No one gets their own way forever for everything.

Accommodation with shared bathrooms is getting rarer.
Most places you can submit a list of preferred options when applying for accommodation - there is no guarantee that you will be given the cheapest accommodation.

It was having to share rooms & bathrooms at boarding school (Dd only boarded during a two specific times when her dad was ill/injured & couldn’t drive her) that has made en suite non negotiable for Dd. She’s willing to go without other stuff and also specifically declined offers from higher accommodation cost areas) to do that.

(caveat it was a highly specialist school where she was on a massive bursary, we are not a boarding school level income family)

Even the maximum maintenance loan doesn't cover some accommodation! Catered with shared bathroom is over £10k at Durham for example. And there's more expense than just food (and even fully catered they will go out for a Greggs or meal with friends). Travel, toiletries, entertainment (this so called 'uni experience' is not just in their halls).
My DD is fairly frugal so imagine £200/month (with me paying for her phone) will be fine if in catered accommodation, with her loan and me paying for that. She will work in the long summers to save, though she may well have to do work experience/internships during part of them.

We pay our DD's rent which is just under 9k a year. All bills, wi fi and unlimited laundry is included in that cost. I also pay her phone and contact lens subscription. She then has the minimum maintenance loan for food, toiletries, going out (she is in walking distance of college and shops do has little transport costs.) This works out about at about )120 a week over term time though she tried to save a bit for holiday spending money too.
She has a new part time job to start after she goes back over Easter as she wants extra for clothes, nails, bouncy blow dries, cocktails etc. (She has expensive tastes.) This seems ample to me. I think lots of graduate young professionals do not have as much disposable income.

That’s loads three words. Double what my son gets.

Catered with shared bathroom is over £10k at Durham for example.

Not quite, but very, very close- £9745. Rounding to £10k seems reasonable. 😀The accommodation element is £6805, with the catered element adding another £2940.

https://www.durham.ac.uk/colleges-and-student-experience/accommodation-and-catering/residence-charges/undergraduate-residence-charges/

The shared bathroom is only around £600 less than the ensuite option £10,369 so much less of a differential that one might have expected.

The more pertinent points of student maintenance loans (for students from England) are that in recent years the value has not kept pace with inflation with the max maintenance loan for outside London now being over £1500 less than it should be. The IFS and others have a number of publications on this over the past couple of years.

The threshold for the maximum maintenance loan is the same as it was back in 2008. Using the BoE Inflation Calculator in real terms the household income threshold should likely be nearer £38,000 today.

The threshold above which the minimum maintenance loan is around £62k, marginally higher than the £60k in 2008. If adjusted for inflation that household income threshold above which only the minimum maintenance loan is available would be nearer to £94,000 today.

The House of Commons Library published 2nd Feb this year a briefing paper on student support. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn00916/

The key trends in the real value of the maximum maintenance support package over time

• A gradual real reduction during the 1960s
• A partial reverse in this cut in the late 1970s before some relatively small real cuts in the early 1980s
• The introduction of loans in 1990/91 which initially increased the value of the overall support package and gradually replaced grants over time.
• The total value of support increased gradually each year during the 1990s and up to 2003/04.
• The reintroduction of grants in 2004/05 and their extension in 2006/07 both resulted in jumps in the maximum value of support
• The 2012 reforms increased the size of the support package for new students. Subsequent freezes or below inflation increases in grant and/or loan rates meant real values fell in the following few years.
• Loans replace grants for new students from 2016/17. Increases in the maximum loan amounts in the same year took the value to what was then its highest level in real terms.
• Maximum loan amounts increased gradually between 2016/17 and 2021/22.
• Inflations was much higher in 2022/23 and 2023/24 than the cash increase in maximum support levels. The real terms cut was 7% in 2022/23 and 4% in 2023/24.
• The maximum support in 2024/25 is expected to be around £1,250 less than in 2021/22 in September 2023 prices if adjusted by CPI inflation.
• This cut, at 11% over three years, is larger than any real cuts seen in student support going back to the early 1960s.
• Maximum loan amounts are increased by the Government in line with forecast inflation, but differences between forecast and actual inflation are not ‘corrected’ in later years.
• In January 2023 the IFS said that because the forecasting errors in the previous two years had not been corrected the maximum support amounts will be around £1,500 less in the future. This cut is now effectively baked into future support. It said that the way that forecast inflation is used to uprate maintenance loans “..is not a sensible policy” and “The government’s framing of this announcement as a ‘cost of living boost for students’ is at best highly misleading”.

The link above also includes a file charting the value of support - grant or loan from 1960 to the present day.

Thus back in 1960/61 academic year the maximum support grant was £255, or £4,910 in Sep 2023 prices

1970/71 it was £380 (£4950)

1980/81 it was £1430 (£5735)

1990/91 it was £2265 (grant) plus £420 (loan) - a combined £6,220 in Sep 2023 prices.

@boys3 I see, though the flier we got from St John's said it was over £10k, but I know they are a separate self run college so maybe higher (though free laundry)! Not many en suites at the Bailey colleges, and good chance of sharing a room.
An en suite room at Polden Halls at University of Bath is over £10k uncatered! There are cheaper options, however.
Regardless, not many students will get the maximum loan - we are close but still over the income band. And so I will be paying for some of the accommodation, then expenses on top should she choose an expensive uni. If uncatered I guess it would be closer to £100/week.
She's also strongly leaning towards LSE (should she get an offer), as she will stay at home and not take a maintenance loan at all. After her Portugal experience of living with 14 others and sharing a room, dealing with the girls coming home in a bad way then repeating it the next night, the mess the boys always left (sorry, I know not all boys, and at least they didn't almost set the kitchen on fire like a pair of the girls, but she's very reluctant to share a living space with a boy again - tricky, as she has a brother) she's thinking the living away part of the 'university experience' is overrated. I know I got nothing out of living in a dorm for a year or a shared flat for another two other than how petty and mean others can be!

Apologies @mondaytosunday I likely did not scroll far enough down the Durham accommodation pages.

DS will only get minimum loan so we are paying his accommodation and he will live on his loan. He has also worked full time on a Gap year but most of that has been put in savings, it’s there to fall back on if he needs it. Plus his job is there when he comes home for holidays and in the summer.

DC get given £100 per week by us whilst at Uni. We cover their rent at £9K then the £100 a week is used for food, travel , laundry, gym and socialising.

I did £85 per week which would probably buy £100 stuff now. That was to cover food, nights out, (not ball tickets or big events as I paid for those)laundry costs and one third towards clothes.
I then paid for gym membership, society memberships, a bus pass if they wanted it, any trips or holidays with the societies, list of not all of their books and their phones.
During the uni holidays I gave them around £50 per month.
One DC had a casual job working on the campus and the other had a little business which he a bit of sitting term time and then more during the holidays.

So, based on the minimum loan, as parents you could pay £1,000 a month on rent and then top up spending money of say £100 a week.

£150 a month plus £1000 a term to top up the loan

To give you an idea, dd spent £7900 last year all in (cheaper city) she's a good budgeter!

My DSs rent is only £400 less than that, and then there are all the fuel bills etc on top!
That's before you even start to think about food, toiletries, travel, clubs, books, social life etc!