Financial Help / Bursaries

[ElleSusanne]

Our daughter attends an independent secondary school on a full fee paying place. Shortly after she joined our household income dived to less than £24,000 p.a. due to the resession and her grandparents stepped in and loaned us the school fees for the past two years. However, they are now struggling and can no longer afford to help us. We now have to decide whether to move her to the state system or go cap in hand to the school. However, we have over £1,000,000 equity in our house (have lived here for 20 years), which I know sounds a lot but we do not earn enough to re-mortgage or even change our provider (we still owe £300,000). We also have around £15,000 savings for emergencies, which we actually owe the grandparents for the fees but they have kindly said we can sit on the money for now as it gives us security in case of broken boiler; car repairs etc - none of which can be funded from our income.
Wondering whether anyone has had a similar experience, i.e. applied for a bursary with property equity and savings, and whether it's worth asking the school for help or would they expect us to sell the house? I know the answer is to just ask them but it's not something we will find easy to do, especially if it's a crazy notion due to the property equity. I know on paper we sound well off but we are really struggling with day to day cost of living. Thank you! :)

[friday16]

In theory moving sounds simple but there is some expense involved too which would have to be paid from the proceeds of the sale.

Cry me a river. From a million quid? FFS. This is just Liz Jones style whining. There are houses in London for a mere half a million quid, and not all of them need armed guards to keep the drug dealers at pay. It does not cost half a million quid to move.

[bursarylady]

It's not fair to ask other parents to support you when you have options about supporting yourself.

fugacity, bursaries do not come from fees. Parents do not support another child's bursary. Schools have foundations, they fundraise, sometimes there is old church money, trusts, etc.

I agree with all of the above about the OP's massive equity on the hosue, NO WAY you will get a bursary with that. But I don't understand why people are focusing on her 15K in the bank. You can't even pay one year fees with that. And surely everyone needs a buffer for a rainy day. Frankly, living in London and supporting a family on 24k is not an easy job. Do all of you who focus on the 15K have less than that in the bank? I hope you have secure jobs. I know people with 1K in the bank but I don't know how they sleep at night. They all owe huge amounts on their credit cards lol. So the OP better keep those 15K IMO. If that were all she has, she would get a bursary. But with that house, no way Jose.

[Fugacity]

Very few schools have endowments. The majority of bursaries are financed by current fee payers. 1st XV schools excepted.

[middleclassonbursary]

At my DS's school bursaries are funded by old boys etc etc but I clearly remember a friend with a DS at Eton moaning a few years ago because they'd been told the fees were being increased to put more money in the bursary pot.
If you think about it if there's 1200 boys at Eton and you add £500 pa onto the school fees for bursaries which in the grand scheme of the things is peanuts I doubt most parents would even notice another £166 on their termly bill, our extras fluctuate by that much every term. Then that brings in £600 000 towards bursaries that's 17 100% bursaries a year. Seems a good way of raising money to me.

[Xoanon]

Bursarylady I have less than £15k in the bank. And no I don't consider my job secure (nobody's job is secure). I'm so pleased that you think that's lol-worthy.

[bursarylady]

Xoanon, you misunderstood me! No, it's not lol-worthy that some people have less thank 15k in the bank! I lol at the friends of mine who have little savings but live like if they had lots - restaurants, holidays - and it all goes on the credit card. It's kind of ironic, cause the people I know with savings they try not to spend them and go out less. So it's just ironic. But all this was in my mind, not in my post...

I didn't know about Eton's bursary pot being increased from fees? Surely they have a huge network of wealthy successful old boys...

[Xoanon]

I think you'll find most people have less than £15k in the bank...

[middleclassonbursary]

bursarylady it was about three - four years ago my friend was moaning don't know what the situation is now. Their published accounts will tell you. If I was paying the full whack I wouldn't begrudge an extra £500 pa but I suppose some might.

[marriedinwhiteisback]

At our DC's schools the policy around bursaries is that the value of the home will not be taken into account but that parents are not expected to have any other significant assets and are not expected to be in a position to be taking expensive holidays and driving expensive cars.

I think the OP has taken a lot of stick for having a house worth £1 million. Around here (SW London - Wandsworth/Putney/Wimbleon) a three bed terrace is now approaching £1 million.

A lot, I think OP, depends on how close your dd is to GCSE's. The school is unlikely to be unsupportive if she is in the equivalent of Y10 or above but might consider that a move at Y9 wouldn't be unreasonable.

Obviously I don't know where in the country you are but certainly here in London the economy is picking up and I would have thought that one of you could get a job that brings in between £20k-£30k per year or at the very least could find seasonal work at this particular point in time.

I think you need to talk to school and discuss the best way to support your daughter. It might be possible to arrange a longer period over which to pay the fees or even a reduced fee.

Ultimately it is about supporting your dd and doing what is right for her in the longer term but you have to take a significant degree of responsibility for that too. A £300k mortgage is huge and probably not payable on £24k per annum. Houses in London (if that is where you are) are selling like hotcakes at present and I think the decent thing to do would be to sell your home and downsize, possibly move out a bit, freeing up sufficient equity to repay your parents and to repay the school which hopefully will support you through a rough patch.

I suspect you are in or around London and the key point for me is that the recession is ending. One of you has been out of work for a few years and has had the opportunity to retrain or has or should have had the opportunity to retrain and both of you need to be working even if it's picking up more menial work than before. Not many excuses for both of you not to be working in some capacity.

[TallulahMcFey]

It just goes to show that what is a genuine problem to one is to another, a "problem" they would love to have. However, it is never easy to have a big decrease in income as everyone lives within their means and a decrease in income means some big changes. Leaving a home you love to down-grade is always going to be very upsetting and equally to take a child out of a school they are settled is equally so. Also, depending on where you live, but a 1m property is not ridiculously extravagant and the reduced income is not a lot to fund a £300k mortgage and along with all other bills I can totally understand why the OP would need money to fall back on. To be honest, it IS a situation I am glad I'm not in. However, my children do not go to private school and I have no information that may help you OP. I would only say, that this money is really the grandparents and not yours so I don't think you need to mention it when speaking to the school. I would however start talking to the school and take it from there.

[SoonToBeSix]

Married the op house is worth 4m not 1m .

[marriedinwhiteisback]

The OP said the house is worth over £1 million and there is debt of £300,000 outstanding soontobesix. How do you extrapolate £4 million from that please?

[TallulahMcFey]

Soontobesix - I'm sorry but I don't understand what you me about it being 4m. Having re-read it surely it is actually worth £1.3 million. £1m equity and £300,000 mortgaged.

[marriedinwhiteisback]

OK re-reading it says over £1 million equity with £300k outstanding. I guess that does mean £1.3 million.

[Mutteroo]

Presuming the OP is taking the piss because otherwise their post is offensive to those who genuinely need bursaries! Been there, done that & we truly needed the bursary, the OP does not.

[TallulahMcFey]

Who can truly need a bursary? Surely private education is a benefit for those who can afford it. If not then your children would presumably go to a state school.

[lainiekazan]

Agree. Most people's kids have to slum it at state schools. Surely hundreds of thousands of people need a bursary. In my experience, bursary recipients are those who have made a career out of playing poor. Eg one case I know parents are gardeners, live in lovely tied house, and have wealthy parents. But because on paper they are asset-less and earn little, their dcs qualify for bursaries. Must stick in the craw of those losers who are working all hours and commuting and coughing up full fees.

[sunnyweatherplease]

I always thought bursaries were for children who may particulary benefit from a certain school's curriculum/environment??
ie - a child who shows arty potential, but the local state schools don't offer art opportunities, or sport, music, academic ability etc.

We have bursaries for our dc at two different schools, and we work all hours to pay the fee's, and make sacrifices. We have a small ugly house, and have little money left over each month. The bursary makes it possible for our dc to make use of their schools, but it is not an easy life. It is however a choice we are happy with.

If I knew someone had a bursary and lived in a £1m+ house I'd be pretty fed up and tell them to downsize first.

[middleclassonbursary]

lainiekazan "I have not made a career out of being poor" We are both professionals my husband works 50 - 60 hours a week in a responsible job and I work 40-45. We have an income of approximately £87k pa but this does not put us into a position to pay £34k in school fees. We don't own a house or have any assets, we take one cheap holiday a yr and eat out two or three times a yr max. We drive average cars and wear average clothes. We don't pretend to be poor because we're not in the grand scheme of the thing or live in a tied cottage we pay the market rent which for our area is a £1000 PCM for an average 3 bed house, we also don't have very wealthy parents. We have a very bright able DS who has a lot to offer to a school, we did what anyone else in the UK can do; we applied for a place at his school and applied for a bursary at the same time, they liked him, felt he would benefit from a top quality education and also make a contribution to school life and knowing we couldn't afford the full fees offered us a significant reduction. I call this good fortune and luck not a "career".

[Xoanon]

lisad willing to pay or no, merely having rich parents puts people in a massively advantageous position compared to the majority (sime of us don't even have parents let alone wealthy ones).

[TallulahMcFey]

A fail to see how simply having wealthy parents is as an advantage. My brother in law has rich parents. They are horrible people who should never have had children and have chose to live their lives completely for themselves with never a thought for the children e.g. nannies looking after children whilst they went on holiday, children eating on their own and not with parents. How could he ever be advantaged simply because THEY have money. Surely the money has to be passed to you in some way for you to actually benefit from it - or are you assuming that is always the case - because I can assure you that it isn't.