Do you help fund your Dc through Uni?

[TheHullabaloo]

Do you help finance your Dc whilst at uni, particularly if they don't get the full maintenance loan due to parental income, or do you think as they are adults, and choosing to go to uni, they should work alongside studying to fund themselves?

I guess the caveat to that is im potentially going to have three of my children at uni at the same time, and that isn't taken into account when looking at income and affordability.

Im expected to be able to afford to give each chikd the same as if i only had 1 child at uni.

three at the same time probably worth them actually living at home and going locally.

I have 3 including a set of twins and a single parent. The loan calculations don't take this into consideration. I won't be helping. I simply can't. What I will offer though is that they live at home - several very good universities are within an easy commute - if they choose to go further that's their decision

I did help my son at uni. I gave him money weekly so he didn't get the opportunity to spend it all in one go though, after hearing about a friend's child who just spent it all first week of term!

I do wish the reduction in loan was based on the income of the parent(s) only, rather than household income. Another person I know struggled to support her child as her husband was a higher earner than her but wasn't the childs father. If it had been child maintenance rather than uni loan his income wouldn't have been considered. Her child's biological father didn't contribute at all despite his own high earnings.

Like most here
I paid the accommodation fees
Provided food parcels regularly.. mostly frozen home made meals to soak up the alcohol and burgers 😊
Bedding .. utensils and some spending money till they all got part time jobs

i didnt pay the accommodation, but my dc had maximum loan

Yes we give our son £150 a month and his nan gives him £200 a month. He doesn’t spend any of it because he has a well paid part time job as well as his loan. He saves the extra money he gets off us and I’m happy about that because he has built up a good amount of savings and puts some of it in his Right to Buy savings that we opened up for him when he was 16. We see the extra money going to good use.

Minimum maintenance loan here. We saved towards the ctf which Dd had spent a bit (driving lessons) then split to cover her years at uni (it was about 13k in end). I give her £50 a month whilst at uni DH £100 and MIL £200 a term.
Accommodation in yr1 was covered by maintenance but she moved to a different course.
New uni in South East has much more expensive accomm and due to complications she is going back to halls for 2nd year (en-suite). This is just under 10k per year alone but Dd is contributing towards the cost. She works as a Teaching Assistant in SEN schools during term-time and does SEN holiday clubs and care agency work during the summer. She likes to earn her own money so she doesn't feel inhibited.
She does want to be a SEN teacher so it's all good experience.
She was a summer born and the year in the wrong course could have been avoided if she had more time to explore her options at the right stage of maturity. It may have been better to take a gap year but who knows.
She is hoping to do a salaried teacher training course for SEN Primary as really doesn't want to rack up more debt. We don't know how competitive that will be but she is on the permanent books now of her fave school to work at so fingers crossed.
I do think it is essential for them to work even if it just the summer or one bar shift a week. It really helps with their social skills and maturity levels.
She likes to work a fair bit as she likes the money.

I'm a single parent so she has the full loan amount. Her accommodation includes everything, and after this is paid, she has £60 a week left. I've brought all her moving in things and I pay for her phone. I've told her to ask for money if they start saying "buy this and that" at the start, as she'll be doing lab work, and will give her a small amount each month.

Her course is a lot of contact hours and many full days so I'd prefer she studied / rested / made friends too.

I added upthread, if your child is unable to claim the full maintenance loan because of parental income, then I do think you should help if you are able, I understand there may be circumstances when this just isn't viable. We are helping our Dc.

@FixTheBone, I had a typo in my second post, was supposed to be 'if able'. I do understand circumstances might make it impossible to offer help. We will have two Dc at uni at the same time, and it will be a struggle to help, so can imagine very hard with three.

I'll do what I can. Which isn't much. DS doesn't get the full loan so we are "expected" to top him up by about £400 a month. There is no way I can afford that. I have other kids and a huge mortgage.
I will send him what I can each month. He took a gap year to save money so will be ok for a bit.
I'd love to pay his accommodation but I just don't have a spare £7k a year. We don't even go on holiday as we can't afford it

Of course - I do wonder if people consider this when having large families. Raising children properly is an expensive business.

it doesnt have to include university to be raised properly just to point that out, there are other ways

We give a monthly allowance but it stops during holidays

It’s important to us to be able to support our children through university. To me it is part of being a good parent. If they don’t get funding due to parental earning then the parent doesn’t fill that gap that’s pretty poor.

No....because I wasn't earning enough at the time. There were no contributions assigned to me as my income was below the limit.

My daughter worked alongside her studies all through her degree, because she wanted to do extras and afford to travel a bit with her boyfriend in the holidays. I have nothing but respect for her for doing that, and it gave her a very good work ethic once she left and began working full time.

However, if I'd been earning more, of course I would have handed over my contribution without question.

Dd1 we topped up.
DD2 didn't go.
Dd3 will take a year out/think about apprenticeship. We will support if she really wants to go.

Dd gets minimum loan, which she uses along with earnings made in the holidays to live on day to day. We pay her rent.

All.my friends have supported their kids through uni. Only reason not to is you can't afford to.

I do not identify with this attitude that as soon as they have their 18th birthday all parental support (moral and financial) ceases and they are adults who stand on their own two feet. Of course you support and contribute if you can.

We have 2 kids currently at uni, one is living at home while studying, the other is away from home. For the one away from home we pay her accommodation and food. Both also work part time in the holidays.

Another one here that pays rent.....DS finished Uni just as DD started so this is our 6th year of doing it. 😩She does have a number of friends whose parents don't contribute at all for anything, regardless of the loan amount, including some who are pretty wealthy. They get by on overdrafts and jobs.

I agree. In fact we will be prepared to support our dcs until they are into their mid twenties. Things are different these days, it’s nigh on impossible to walk out of school or uni into a decent job that pays enough to get you on the housing ladder. So if dh and I have to help out by letting them live at home for free while they save for a deposit, or put money aside to help them out of the rental trap then so be it. We are lucky to be able to do this but it will mean having to make sacrifices.

Unfortunately the situation with Uni is that most parents will have to provide funding to assist with Uni living. I think Martin Lewis underplays the reality as he focuses on loans being a graduate tax whereas the reality is, without help, Uni costs needs parental contribution.

I hope posts like this highlights the financial position and helps to prepare future parents.

If parents can't help then a gap year or working before Uni is likely to be a sensible route. Also apprenticeships are a way to get a degree without the debt.

First child - didn’t go

Second child - Degree Apprenticeship (earns an income)

Third child - she will be commuting either by train or car which we will pay for - no accommodation - and she works part-time. Starts on Monday eeeek….