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 totally agree people don’t realise how expensive it is. I keep telling friends with young children to start saving now. Obviously know not everyone is in a position to save much, but many just don’t realise. We are high earners, but also made compromises along the way so we could save for uni. We never moved to a bigger house, never went on very expensive holidays etc

Same here, and there’s no implied judgement in that for anyone else. The cost of halls was a shock even so- the allocated non-catered room is 920 per month (not London). Beans on toast for me when his sister goes next year.

I don't think it's fair on ds that he gets a lot less money than his friends just because I earn more so I top it up to the amount his friends get on full loan. I don't pay his accommodation, I can't afford to do that but the money we giev goes towards it.

With dd it's a bit more complicated because we already funded her through drama school but she has just gone back to uni. She thought she would be classed as independent but despite not having lived with us for 3 years they are still going on our income (possibly because we helped her during covid when her workplace kept being closed down.)

So we hadn't budgeted for this so we will help where we can, bit not to the full extent (luckily her city has lower accommodation costs)

When people merrily have 3/ 4 children because little children are so cheap and wear hand me downs etc I do wonder what their plan is for university.

@Sasannach Accommodation really is not £1000 a month nearly everywhere! Anywhere outside London it is much less. £200 a week plus is London (but not always) and plenty of unis have accommodation for £6/7,000. So I don’t know who you have listened to! Maybe look at uni accommodation prices? Some are set so full loan pays for food and accommodation.

I think with 38% of 18 year olds going to uni, we must keep loans. When 10% went it was very different. Then we thought it was ok for the taxpayer on a modest income to pay for the history and English grad. Now we have changed direct uni funding into loans. The government has £280 billion of unpaid student loans. So we are paying! Just in a different way. If we want to have a vastly expanded university sector with a very large student body, students should be responsible for some of the cost. It’s a choice to go and making sure of a decent job after is key. Large numbers don’t so the taxpayer gets next to nothing back. That’s why the repayment period is now 40 years! To try and recoup more money. If potential students think it’s not worth it, they aren’t obliged to do it.

@TheaBrandt In a case I know very well: not get married. Separate from father. Be a single mum. Don’t work above 16 hours. Get benefits and dc get full loans and bursaries! Easy when you know how! Dad stays in family house - owned outright. Mum rents.

Glad I'm not the only one! If the loans were at 0-1% I maybe wouldn't cover everything but I hate thought of them starting adulthood in debt. Very lucky to be able to do this.

That's what we think, @Kindnesscostsnothingtryit .

Dd has summer jobs and savings. She works hard. We don't want her starting her working life in debt.

My son receives maximum student loan and pays his accommodation. He received an additional £650 per month from me and grandparents. I now think he’s receiving too much, but we have said we’ll reassess after a couple of months and when he’s had time to find a job.

it is very disappointing looking back, that both my dds received maximum loans because of our income
so now they are still in more debt than students of wealthier parents!

@Skipsurvey It’s not a debt though is it? There is no obligation to pay it off.Just an obligation to pay a contribution each month based on earnings. Low paying career, low contributions each month. As for parents who boast about having £60,000 to pay for tuition and accommodation, great for them. Others should not feel sad because you are the vast majority. It’s not a majority of 350,000 students who start uni every year who won’t have loans. We could have paid. We decided not to. The loans and income earned was down to dc. The plan 5 is designed to get far more students paying off the loans but most would not go if they didn’t have loans. The best advice is to get the best paying job you can and pay it off as early as you can. DC should be discerning about uni, course and job.

I should have said: lower contributions each month but they go on for 40 years. Part time working takes dc out of repayments if they choose this, unless they are high earners. So for many it’s controllable by getting that well paid job.

my dd and her friends are gutted that they earn enough to pay!

Yes. We gave up a lot to fund uni and have no regrets about that. It is a parental duty to help your kids as much as you are able to, even if that means big sacrifices. As "the squeezed middle" the loan amount was negligible anyway so we we bit the bullet and pulled our belts tight. No holidays, no luxuries, cheap food, driving around in an old rust bucket banger.

Yes we do, she gets the minimum maintenance loan which she uses to live and we pay her rent which is 1K a month, not London but Bristol. Bloody expensive down there. She works when she’s home and saves for travel.
We want her to have as many opportunities as she can before she is tied down.
She’s in her final year now. Dc2 could have gone this year but has settled on a different path. We had put money aside but this has just remained in savings. Dc3 is too young for it to be a consideration at the moment but again we have saved for it if he decides to go.

There are properties for students in Bristol for less than this. Less desirable locations reduce rents.

I’ve just seen a 2 bed flat on Alma road for £750 pm each. There are cheaper options.

My DD is getting almost a full loan and I am on 30-40k, but I think some is disregarded as I am supporting 2 other children and a husband.

I will still need to top her up though, her accommodation is not cheap. I will make her up so she ends up with the equivalent of the basic amount after accommodation is paid. Fortunately we are in the position to do this due to inheritance. (Oh and my monthly mortgage payment isn't much more than her weekly rent)

£750 a month is still a fairly hefty parental contribution!

(The cost may also vary depending on whether bills are included and whether it's over a full year or just the university year).

@redskydarknight Thats the total rent. So basic maintenance covers half of it. That wasn’t a student flat either! Obviously few available right now. Half of that would be minimum loan but you definitely can get cheaper by sharing. However I don’t agree parents need to find £1000 a month on top of minimum loan.

The system when I went in the 80s and now is that your parents (unless badly off) are expected to make the minimum up to the maximum - the maximum being what the less well off get. Yet then and now there is no legal obligation to make it up. My parents made my tiny minimum grant up to the full one and parents today where the child gets about £4300 rather than about 10k the poor get are expected to do so too.

Agreed I don’t HAVE to find the £950 a month for his halls room, but I know he’s safe, has easy access to everything, and is in with a bunch of other freshers. I could have saved 200-300 getting him a random house share but I chose to cough up for his ease/experience. He can make me that saving next year when he goes into a house with friends.

i think it is earning less than £24000 per annum,
pretty average wage for one person

Due to my variable self employed income DS gets full maintenance loan this year. We are paying his accommodation on the understanding that he saves some of this years ml to cover next year when he is likely to get minimum.
He is likely to work during holidays, labouring for his mates dad. They may pick up some work when they are away, over weekends. They are at the same uni.
We have been paying school fees for the last 16 years, funding uni is a lot cheaper.

My parents put 3 of us through uni, two of us for 5 yrs and one for 7yrs ( BSc then PhD ). We were on minimum grant between us but DF had access to an academic grant through his work which added an extra 1k each year for two of us but had been phased out by the time my youngest sibling was looking to apply.

They are going to be in debt forever under plan 5 so if we want to help DS to minimise this debt we will. His target is to have enough left to cover the Christmas break. If he runs out he will have to work.