Student finance

[tendril]

Please could someone with a child at uni talk to me about the financial side? What do I need to know/do?
DD starting uni in the autumn

Look at Student Finance site

The fees for the course, you don't see.
The maintenance loan arrives at the beginning of each term (well, up to a couple of weeks in.

You will have to find a deposit for the accommodation long before that, but generally the fees for halls are due when you get the maintenance loan through.

The amount she gets depends on parents income, and there is an expectation you will fund the 'gap' if they don't get the full loan.

When you ask on here how much a student "needs" (per week or per month) you will get a HUGE variety of answers.

IME, (3 x dn, 2 x dc, friends of theirs and dc of friends), the overwhelming majority of students take on jobs - either at University during term time or at home during the holidays, or sometimes both - to supplement their income.

What else do you want to know ?

Thankyou ! It's that funding the gap bit I'm worried about. Sounds like it could seriously affect family finances.

I'm guessing even discounting accommodation a student would need at least £50 a week for food and everything else. 😣

You need to work out what the gap will be - there are some basic tables you can look at that match approx household income to loan/gap, it’s not exact unless they will get the minimum but it will give you a good idea.

If she is on minimum loan, her accomodation cost (for first year at least, once out of halls it can be cheaper) will almost certainly be above the minimum loan amount, so you would need to top that up as well as giving her a weekly/monthly allowance.

My DS gets minimum, we topped up accomodation and then gave him an allowance - but never made up the full gap, and he has had more than enough to live on.

Many students do work, but bear in mind that this will be harder for some courses and some unis (oxbridge) - however there are always the long summer hols. DS worked in 6th form, then at same place in uni city at end of first year but realised he couldn’t carry it on into second year, as he has a very full-on timetable. But he didn’t really need the money and has saved most of it.

I've got one who had graduated, and one in her 2nd year.
My current student's loan doesn't quite cover her (non-catered, but all bills included) rent, so we have to pay the difference for that, and then we give her £35 a week from Sept to end of May. She manages fine on that.

She runs a car (bought herself, and pays own insurance and all running costs / MOT / tax etc as well as petrol). In her first year she couldn't get a job at University, but has this year. She picks up shifts at a job at home in the holidays though not as many as she'd like.

dc1 had a similar amount, and was the same, couldn't get a job at university until 3rd year not sure how hard he tried mind but worked during the holidays here at home.

So no, they don't need £50 a week, and remember, it is for somewhere between 32 and 36 weeks of the year, not every week.

Thankyou all.
Is the basic maintenance load 4K or whatever it is per year? Not pet term? If it is per year do they split it into thirds and deposit it per term ?

We pay our sons accomodation which is around £1400 a term then he lives off the maintenance loan. I dontbthink he took the full maintenance loan. They dont seem to.consider or take into account other younger dependent siblings.

Yes its per year, you can choose to have it paid termly or in a lump sum. Our DD uses it to pay her rent which leaves a £200 shortfall per term that we pay. We give her £70 per week, she’s told me this is average although one of her flat mates gets £125. In January we had to pay the deposit for her house for next year which was about £500. DD has confessed she can feed herself for £15 per week, Uni is a five minute walk so that’s all she needs, the rest is spent on going out.

We pay the accommodation and give him £100 per week
Don't want him working during term time