DS in Y13, should we doing anything now re Uni finance?

[MonkeyTennis34]

That’s it really.
He’s about to sit his A levels, has his offers but obviously doesn’t know where he’s going yet.

Thanks all.
So the figure of parents contributing £10k per year for the shortfall sounds about right.
Crikey!
Even more concerning is that DD is in the year below.

My son is in Leeds and my daughter is in Liverpool.

Accommodation is plentiful in both cities. Leeds is the more expensive. My son is at the conservatoire and his halls were pretty expensive in the first year but not as expensive as some other places, but his 2nd and subsequent years he has been able to find private halls that are quite reasonable. I think he is currently paying about £6,500 with shared bathroom. He paid £7,500 last year with en suite.

Accommodation in Liverpool is cheap and plentiful. My daughter is paying less than £6,000 en suite.

I don't contribute anything like that.

Dd is a mature student so independent of us. She gets full loan and apart from us helping kit her out at the start of her course and me giving her £500 because her full finance didn't come through until November (they needed her final P45 to prove independence) . She struggled to get a part time job but has still managed fine.

Ds gets minimum loan and we top it up the amount of maximum which last year meant we gave him £5,460. He worked full time over Christmas in a well paid job (playing for a professional panto) and is working full time over Easter on a day rate for a theatre production.

He hasn't spent any of that although he has spent the money he earns every now and then playing for amdram shows.

I think we are at generous end and don’t contribute anything like that. If you deduct minimum loan from max loan it gives expected contribution. It was around £5500 a year expected contribution. My dc chose cheapest halls at just under £6000 so we opted to pay that as our contribution and her live off min loan. We did food shopping, kitted her room out, train fares, contact lenses and phone too.

A lot of parents pay for accommodation and let their DC live off the minimum maintenance loan (if they can afford to do this, obviously).

This is unlikely to be as much as £10K in the universities you've mentioned, but you will be able to find accommodation costs on university websites.

There are three universities that I know of in Leeds, but assuming your DS means the University of Leeds, you can take a look at these prices: https://accommodation.leeds.ac.uk/compare-residences

When I said £10k, I mean Maintenance Loan = c£5k and if parents can contribute £5k as well, that should be enough (I think OP understood me but some other PP think I meant a £10k parental contribution just to your DS).

Sadly, the fact that you have a DD in the year below (so there might be some overlap) will almost certainly not make a difference unless she goes to a London University. The reason that might make a difference is because Student Finance England (SFE) has a maximum 'assessed parental contribution' and you might go over the ceiling if you've got two at uni at the same time as long as one or both are at London universities. I'd have to look that up for you though (I'm working from memory). It would be better to plan on the basis that you may have two at uni at the same time and they both get the minimum.

Things (prospective and current) students can do to prepare:

• work and save while studying at FE level (A Levels / T Levels)
• work and save in the summer before they come
• work and save during a gap year before uni
• work during term-time* and during vacations (universities usually have info about finding local work)
• keep expenditure as low as possible (apply for accommodation early - most universities open their housing applications in about March and you'll only be invited to apply for housing when they decide which offer to accept (firm - first choice), students do not reserve accomm at their insurance (second choice) so if they end up going there, it may cost more if the cheapest rooms have gone

Term-time work will depend on course intensity (number of teaching/lab hours, etc, per week). Some universities/courses have got quite strict rules about not working.

10 hours per week at NMW is around £350pcm.

Edit: removed something that was speculative.

Thanks @HEstufinadviser. That makes sense.