Affording uni- I'm struggling with how?

[Boxingshibes]

My dd has applied for uni and I think we can just manage it. University Fees, loans and ideally as she's applied to Scotland there is extra money. Plus maintenance loan.
Unfortunately I earn £60k but am sole earner my dh is disabled. But we'll get mim loan i believe.
We live paycheck to paycheck as we live in SE and rent.
She will be able to get a disabled loan/bursery. And she does get PIP.
But it's going to be so hard.
How do you do it?

It might be worth her taking a year out, working and saving, then she will have a good pot to act as a buffer.

In terms of other options - she will have about 12 weeks between finishing A-levels and going to University. Another good time to work and save.

She will need to look for work once se is at University.

2 of my dc had different jobs both at home and at University, the third stays at University for most of the year, and works extra hours in her job there.

Good for her! You mention fees, but these are covered in full by the tuition fees loan that she doesn’t have to pay off until her income goes over 26k. Have you read the Money Saving Expert guides to student finance?

Can I ask why she has applied to Unis in Scotland if you live in SE? It's going to cost a lot in train fares/petrol to get there and back. In answer to your question -loans and she will need to work.

Have you done a bit more digging and costed it?

Fee and maintenance loans, an additional disability loan and PIP should be a fair amount. Will her disability mean much additional expense? Will it prevent her picking up a weekend job or holiday work?

It is worth recognising that she'll fine out if this with a fair debt (albeit with affordable repayments) and so is it worth it for the career she wants to persue or the experience she'll gain from uni? Would a degree apprenticeship be as good or better?

Depending on the course she's doing, you may find her hours actually in uni are not that onerous, leaving plenty of time for a job to help the finances. DD is only in lectures about 10 hours per week, lots of course work to do but very motivated and has managed to earn around £14k per year for the last two years as well. She does live at home though so no maintenance loan needed, but runs her own car to commute (1 1/2 hours each way) and we don't subsidise her (other than living at home that is). It's very achievable with organisation and a good work ethic.

Yes agree, a part time job is a good plan – tho it’s not always easy to find them at uni. But yy does she work now? Can she find something in the summer holidays (which for her will be close to three months)? If she can find something FT (bar work say) she can clear £3-4k over the summer which if saved is a decent chunk of living exes.

But a lot of people pay their DCs' rent and they live off the loan. We didn’t at first (DD was at uni in 2019) as the loan was worth more (CoL lower) and the threshold was higher – so DD paid her hall fees from her loan and I subbed her some food money. Since then our HH income has gone up and the loan/threshhold has not, or not much – so the upshot is that this year I am flat out paying DS2's rent. It helps that both my DC went to unis in cheaper places. Halls and for both DD and DS2 were about £4-5k pa, and DS's rent has never been more than about £550 pm tho of course that is 12 months.

Plenty of people I know are paying £10k a year for their DCs' rent. So a factor might need to be the cost of housing. Where has your DD applied? Are halls and housing cheaper? Anything around £100-150 pw is not bad for halls.

She has mobility issues so has tried bar/cafe work but not sustainable. Can use a computer so maybe call centre type work.
Scotland the uni she's applied to is the best for what she wants to do.

They give a very generous 7k 1st year cash ( 2k uni, 3k from England and £3k grades) bonus. Years 2-4 would be 6k.
This should pay for accommodation. Then loan and pip. And hopefully we will be able to give her £2-300 a month.
Also all buses are free in Scotland
Maybe ramen noodles or £1 iceland meals . Idk

Ah OK @Boxingshibes I did nearly ask if her disability would make hospitality work tricky. But yes office work over the summer certainly a possibility.

Do you know that accommodation will be covered by £7/6k? That's fairly cheap tbh but of course may be correct. I'm guessing (hoping!) not Edinburgh as that is notoriously ££. But yes otherwise that sounds more than workable with the grant. Is this specific to her course?

She might be better off tutoring, that can be very lucrative, especially if she is going to study Maths or English.

This is important @Boxingshibes. When a student receives PIP for mobility or care (or both) the household income cap is effectively removed. So your daughter will qualify for the maximum student loan regardless of your income. This along with Disabled Student allowance, her existing PIP and the 6-7k bursary will put her on close to £23k per annum . Without working. You don’t pay fees. They are paid via the fees loan and paid direct to the university. Different from the maintenance loan.

It sounds like she'll be fine. Has she done a proper budget? The numbers seem to be adding up though
I hugely disagree with the current loan system but i think everyone forgets that students are meant to be poor!

DSA is not cash but support to make uni possible, like software or mentoring though there might be an Uber allowance.

Our DC worked full time in every vacation and never went away on holiday while they were at uni. Sorry, but being a student doesn’t mean having a comfortable existence. You buy the essential books and live on jackets potatoes and pasta. Try being a mum of school age children and going to uni full time! Going to study in Scotland is one of the issues. Both of ours went away but we could visit for the day and would take a box of groceries - pasta, beans, tinned tomatoes. And yes, they had loans to pay off afterwards.

The obvious answer is that she tries to find work either during holiday periods or whilst at uni, to supplement any loans. Be warned though that this is nowhere near as easy these days as it used to be. My DS searched for work all through uni and every uni holiday but never got anything; he's managed to find something now, post graduation, but it's a zero hours contract and if he gets two or three shifts a week he's chuffed. I've heard so many stories, both on here and in RL, about students and graduates applying for work, applying for literally anything they can, and not getting anywhere, even after 100+ applications. Most of the time companies don't even bother to respond to applicants. There are jobs out there but unfortunately far more people wanting jobs than there are jobs!

Gosh is this really true?? I have seen brief mentions of "higher loan for disabled students" but have not found anywhere at all to say how much. If it's the max loan instead of minimum for my son this will be an unbelievable relief. Do you have any links explaining this?

She’s English on min loan so just under £100 a week. Plus her PIP - min £75 a week.
But the Scottish uni will give her £7000 yr1 and £6000 after that which will cover rent. This seems incredibly generous of the uni.
English tuition loan to pay fees.
I’m not seeing how she’s going to struggle at all she’ll have large amounts of disposable income.
Plus DSA will pay for any equipment or software etc.

Not true my dc gets PIP due to physical disability and min maintenance loan due to our household income from SFE.

Have a look at what, if any, benefits she can claim as well. I was able to continue claiming Incapacity Benefit at uni.

I know things have changed but it is still worth looking at.

My daughter is in receipt of PIP but gets minimum student loan amount also

Reading the disability pages it doesn’t say you get more student loan just that you can claim benefits as a student and the special support element is not counted as income when you claim those benefits. That’s different to just getting more student loan.

What is the special support element though?

This, our dc are only at primary school, yet we’re already having discussions about what they want to do with life, Sadly uni isn’t go to be the lifestyle rite of passage it was for us 20 years ago… it’s horrifyingly expensive and unless they have a named degree with a career route I don’t think it’s feasible for everyone..

Does this help at all? It does seem that some disabled students do qualify for additional funds.

https://www.gov.uk/disabled-students-allowance-dsa

If you can’t afford to give her more she works like other students

They give a very generous 7k 1st year cash ( 2k uni, 3k from England and £3k grades) bonus. Years 2-4 would be 6k.

What uni/course is she doing to get all this cash??

How much will the travel up there/home from the SE be?