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Parenting

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Original poster

Will the cuts affect your family size?

80 replies

highlystrung · 15/11/2010 07:18

We have three children and tbh I'd always hankered after having four - being from a family of four kids myself. But since the cuts, and more specifically, the university funding changes, I think we'll be sticking at three. We've already lost our tax credits and the child benefit will go - but the real killer for us is the prospect of having to fork out £100k or thereabouts for each of them to go to Uni. Could always stop them doing their homework so they flunk their GCSEs and save us a fortune I spose, but failing that it looks like we're in an American situation where we have to start saving in to a college fund for each of them. Panicking really - what with trying to pay the mortgage and paying in to a pension, but part of me also thinks that it is fair enough that people should consider if they can afford their kids before they have them. Anyone else letting the changes determine how many kids they have?

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arabicabean · 15/11/2010 07:45

No, but I had already considered education before having the child (public school fees and university). It looks like we will be paying more for university now.
I don't rely on child benefit and don't receive tax credits.

cory · 15/11/2010 07:53

Family is already complete, but tbh there is no way we could supply 100k for even one child, so dcs are going to have to take out a student loan; if we'd had ambitions like that we'd have had to be childless. Oh well, student loan didn't kill me.

moomaa · 15/11/2010 07:54

I think it's sad to not have a child because of university education fees. Understandable if it's because your daily living costs are too high, but not because of uni.

What if someone said to you that you have a choice of exisiting but having to fund uni yourself if you go and not exisiting at all? I know I'd choose to exist.

I think the Uni cuts are disgusting too BUT kids can go without parental support and many will and if uni numbers are restricted then employers will start making good A level entrance jobs again and train people themselves.

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NinkyNonker · 15/11/2010 08:40

No. We're only at the start (first child is 3 months), but we don't rely on any govt income and want 3 or 4. Will plan for uni as best we can. Some things are too important.

Portofino · 15/11/2010 08:42

Why would you have to pay 100k for them to go to Uni? They don't have to pay the money back til afterwards.....?

Portofino · 15/11/2010 08:45

And I agree with Moomaa, too many kids go to University now and struggle to establish a career. I think things will be swing back round to a time where fewer go to Uni and more do vocational qualifications and apprenticeships and post A'level training schemes.

Original poster

highlystrung · 15/11/2010 09:44

I agree that uni is vaguely pointless these days unless you want to be a doctor,vet, lawyer etc. So many jobs deemed to be graduate jobs used to be done very well by non-grads. I dont rely on any benefits - just hadnt banked on such high fees if they do want to go - wouldnt want them saddled with lifetime of debt - unable to buy a house etc. Tbh we probably would have stuck at three anyway (dh reluctant to say the least to have four) - but this has cemented our decision. Just wondered what everyone else was thinking.

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sarah293 · 15/11/2010 09:45

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ShadeofViolet · 15/11/2010 10:19

We will choose our favourite and they can go to Uni

meltedmarsbars · 15/11/2010 10:20

Not unless I stunt their growth by lack of good food!

Actually, dd2 is pretty stunted already!

LemonDifficult · 15/11/2010 11:09

No. This won't affect my family size at all. So many variables affect our finances and I imagine that's true for most people. Many families can't plan more than ten years ahead, since most jobs aren't stable and no career plan/income can be certain.

Also, I trust the children that I have will make sensible decisions with us as a family when the time comes for them to decide about uni. We can't afford to save to pay for them into their early twenties, whether it's one child or five. We'll probably just assess it from where we are. I don't imagine we'll be bankrupting ourselves over their Film Studies degree.

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 15/11/2010 11:14

Well, we've already stuck to one as we can't really afford to either pay childcare for a second for for one of us to give up work.

University wouldn't come into the equation tbh - although it will be nice to help ds out here and there, the responsibility to pay for HE rests with the adult availing themselves of it, not their parents.

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 15/11/2010 11:15

pay childcare for a second or for one of us to give up work

Deliaskis · 15/11/2010 11:19

This specifically wouldn't affect my family size. Fees are to be paid back after graduation when they're earning a reasonable salary.

General consideration of the costs of maintenance at university and also school activities and out of school activities might play into it, because of course we all have to take into account our circumstances as well as our 'ideal world' wishes when considering our family size, but not the tuition fees increase.

higgle · 15/11/2010 11:21

We are a middle class family with an income that sounds quite good but there is no way we could pay £100k to send children to uni and can't quite work out where that figure comes from ( unles they are doing medecine or vet. studies ) 3 x 9k = 27k + 3 x 4k for basic living = 12k + 9k for extras = 48k

We have one son at Oxford and hope DS2 will also go to uni and I'm afraid both of them will be on loans and a little bit of top up for extras from us ( send ds1 £300 pcm as he can't work with the course he is doing)
Paying back doesn't seem too onerous to me on the basis of what I have read - it really is just a graduate tax for those with reasonable earnings.

Just a thought - I'd feel pretty pissed off if I'd scrimped and saved to put a child through uni by paying for everything only to have them become a really high earner. Think GP on 350K!!!

peppapighastakenovermylife · 15/11/2010 11:54

I would never not have a child because of university fees! For a start you dont know whether they will, be able to or need to go to university. We dont know what the fees will be like at that time.

I say this as a lecturer with a degree and two post graduate degrees - university as a concept is over rated for many people. A great experience yes but many will get where they want to be without it. Experience is worth much more than a degree.

We planned our children taking into account whether we would be able to feed and clothe them as children. If we can help them as adults great, but I wouldnt not have a child because of university costs.

Within the system they are proposing they will only pay these debts back if they earn enough money to do so. At the current rate of paying it back they will have to be earning a lot more than us for it to make a huge dent in their income!

HappyMummyOfOne · 15/11/2010 12:07

We only planned one but if we do change our minds the cuts wont affect that as I would never have a child based on benefits anyway, its parents who should provide not the state.

The university side has so many factors to it, no saying the child would want to go or be clever enough to go. That said, there are far too many graduates so the job market for them is not what it used to be so there may be some positives to the cuts if it stops people doing fun degrees etc. Things may change in the future, the economy make pick up and fees could go back down etc, theres no way of knowing.

Niceguy2 · 15/11/2010 12:10

I must admit its got to the point where i question the value of a university education at all. And this is coming from someone who is until recently was fanatical about university education.

I mean if its going to cost nearly £40-50k per child, you have to question the value. I mean that's a lot of money to repay once you factor in interest.

And lets be honest, nowadays there are not the graduate options around there once was. So unless my kids want to do something like Law or medicine where the rewards are very high, I'm not sure how I can justify it. And certainly not if they want to do some stupid degree like media studies or fashion/art.

PercyPigPie · 15/11/2010 12:31

Like you, hankering after a fourth, but realise it would cripple us. It also means that while we were considering private education, they will probably have to do without and put that money towards university.

HalfCaff · 15/11/2010 12:47

I am refusing to think about anything to do with my children becoming teenagers...that thought alone would be enough to put a lot of people off having children! Have just done the secondary school choices and that was traumatic enough.

In the old days grants were linked to parental income, and I would expect to contribute something to nurture whatever talents my two turn out to have.

Niceguy2, I don't necessarily think art/fashion are 'stupid degrees' and the rewards in these areas can be very high too!
I don't see the need to go for uni for the sake of it or just for the experience, but if you have a talent or a passion for something, it should not be denied.

sheeplikessleep · 15/11/2010 12:47

The cuts (amongst other things!) are making me think twice about family size. We have two DSs and always considered possibility of the third.

DH just into HRP and we have a large mortgage, so CB cut having quite an impact, as well as considering future costs of uni. Also wondering what other cuts will be made.

flyingzebra · 15/11/2010 13:03

Bit of a middle class 'dilemma' this, isn't it?

Who says all three of your children will want to go to University? I certainly won't be encouraging mine to got 18/19 regardless of what they want to do with the rest of their lives like I and my peers were.

Firawla · 15/11/2010 13:06

i have 2, hoping for a 3rd v soon and would like 4 or 5 in total, i would not cut down because of government cuts. i feel that is too big of an impact to allow them to have really, as for uni fees can they not stil get a loan? i haven't really looked into it as mine are young. also you never know there is a chance things will all change again in another 18 yrs by the time babies are grown up, so no way i would not change any of my life plans due to governments desicisons or cuts

minervaitalica · 15/11/2010 13:11

No - however, at mine finances are always a consideration when big decisions are to be made, including how many children to have. I was never going to have more than two as I wanted to be able to help them out with school/uni/buying a house/setting up a business whatever and having more than two would make that much harder (other things being equal).

Academic now, as we have settled for one (totally different reasons!)

theywillgrowup · 15/11/2010 13:15

oh dear i can only dream of some of your lives,good luck to you though

please someone say there as poor as me,i cant be the only one

100k each for uni,good god cant believe that,and may i ask how this figure breaks down and cant they work part=time to help fund this,years ago peeps did

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