Am I being naive by planning not to fund my 4 kids thru uni?

[deepest]

Is there enough loan facilities that they can pick up the debt themselves?

True, BackforGood. Personally I couldn't wait to get away from home so I jumped at the first course I could which was far enough for me to do this. Staying at home doesn't suit everyone.

Most people I know took both the tuition and maintenance loan, the maximum they could. I think the government reckon living costs are about eight thousand pounds a year, made up of loan (grant if applicable) and parental contribution.

With the maintenance loan, most people either covered their rent and their parents paid for living costs/books/spending money. Or the other way around (usually if money needed to be paid before the loans came through).

Where I am, having a job wasn't encouraged and our course was a high workload compared to some (pretty much 9-5 all week, and lots of outside work), so it was hard to hold something down anyway. Or you worked so little that the amount you had to juggle against what you were paid didn't really make sense to do.

We mainly worked over the summer, and a lot of us did a paid year in industry. I don't know anybody who didn't have some parental help though.

No, your DC can do it themselves with loans and work. It's not a popular viewpoint on MN but it is reality for many.

Chickydoo - that sounds incredibly generous.

Like you, our DS only get the minimum loan, we pay their accommodation, & the odd online food shop usually at the start of term, but expect them to use their loan for everything else.

Oldest DS has just finished his 3rd year and has managed his money fine. Ds2 has just finished 1st year, and again, has been fine.
Neither work in term time as their course requires them to be at uni every day, often a 9am start, and doesn't finish till 6pm several evenings a week. So they are dependent on their loan for money.

In the summer break they usually get a bit of casual work which gives them 'beer-money' for the holiday, and hopefully a small (think £100) cushion for when they return in October and allows for delays in getting their loan.

Lots of their friends do have term time work, depends in your course really.

Many young people who go to university have no financial help from parents. They do have to find a job though.

We have plans for ds who's 3. At the moment we're paying off the mortgage as fast as possible and should have payed it off in the next 8 years. Then we plan to put mortgage payments in a fund for university. It'll work out at about £10,000 a year saved, so after 6/7 years, we should have enough to get ds and dc2 through.

Just to add, this is because, with the current means tested loans and fees as they are, we will get bare minimum as we will both be working as full time teachers.

DD will be nursing, so pt job not an option, and I think she only gets 7 weeks Hol a year. So no chance of working in the holidays.
So very proud of her though. Happily the NHS pay for tuition fees.

How old are your kids OP. The goalposts are ever moving when it comes to student finance so it's hard to predict what will be happening in future. Maybe it will all be free in a few years time

I don't think it's a bad idea to encourage your DCs to save for Uni from a young age. If they end up getting funding from elsewhere or if they don't go to Uni then there is no harm done. My DD2 already has a couple of thousand saved up from babysitting. It won't pay for Uni but every penny helps.

Students can live on remarkably little money for their living costs but halls and travel can be expensive. My DC shop at Oxfam, buy cheap food (they do a lot of batch cooking) and will often buy their train tickets months in advance to take advantage of really cheap deals. We actually fund them ourselves but I still like them being frugal. We have three kids at Uni this year and in a years time we will end up with all four of them at Uni at the same time.

Halls are really expensive at some Uni's. It's definitely worth looking at when you are choosing Uni's.

I never made plans to fund my kids through uni.
I had stupidly assumed that they would be funded in the way I have helped fund everyone else and their bleedin' kids through university.

Pisses me off that after doing it for others for over 50 years between me and OH, our kids will probably end up not wanting to risk it.

Agree with OwThatHurt - your DCs age will depend a lot, if they are still at primary school, I wouldn't be basing any plans on the current system.

My DC1 is just starting school in September. When I was his age, universities were free to all and a 'full grant' covered hall fees and was enough to live off as well. By the time my DB (3 years older) went to uni, your degree was still free, grants still exisited but a full grant didn't even cover hall fees. By the time I went, grants didn't exist at all, everyone could get a non-means tested loan and fees were £1k a year and "would only go up with inflation". Then it was means tested loans and fees going to £3k a year, then we got our current system.

Basically, the rate of change over the last 20 years in higher education funding has been massive, and each change has made it harder for DCs from larger families with middle incomes.

If you can save anything towards uni age, I would do, and if when they get to 18 there's been a massive change again and uni is completely afforable then youcan spend it on a round the world cruise a deposit for a flat or somehting else worthy...

I dunno. Most the Freshers starting in 2014, their parents did not save up huge amounts of money to help them. Somehow these young people are managing. So I think we will, too, without special saving plans.

My mum and dad earn too much but I moved out at 18 and got a mortgage. Then at 21 when to university and it didnt count in my parents income so I was given the full loans and it paid my mortgage/living costs. I did have a part time job as well and worked in holidays.

I was also given lots of money. It worked out at 6k a year and then university bursaries. You have to earn a high wage to pay it back and even then its still a tiny amount a month. I am studying for a masters next but thats fully funded through nhs bursaries. There is lots of help available.

Some Guardian figures here. They suggest £651/month shortfall on avg.

What's bothering me is the £13k/annum estimate of living costs after tuition fees; I know people living on a lot less than that. And the Guardian article blithely brushes over the possibility of student's working to get money (I think most do).

Guardian again says avg student earnings = £112/week, or basically £450/month. So that means a deficit of £200/month for parents or other sources to make up (if you believe the £651/month figure above, not sure I do).

By doing 15 hours work a week and 40 in holidays I was recieving more than minimum wage when added to my loans. They were good times as a lot easier than working for it!

People have 'plans' for 3 year olds?
Maybe they won't want to go to uni. Still no harm saving to help them with whatever they do want to do.

Well that's it, really. It's a sort of university/house deposit plan really.

Oldest has just done GCSEs - then other 3 a year after each other - might encourage certain ones to take a year out to stagger the costs!

But I really want them to manage their own money and work PT etc. They dont have savings atm so I think will get them earning what they can and saving it now.

Well, my DCs might not want to go to uni, they might not be able to -but while I accept they might be limited by their ambition and academic ability, I don't think they should be limited by my financial decisions now. I was one of the last lucky ones, I think it's shit that my DCs won't have the same chances I had.

I think £13,000 in living costs is wrong. I was in the most expensive halls (because I didn't have anywhere to live a week before and when they offered me something in halls I jumped at it) and it was ~£6,500 with all food in, so I paid for societies and books and the odd night out (I was a very quiet student!) on top. It came to nowhere near £13,000. I know because my parents paid all my accommodation, I paid everything else, and still had a over £2000 of my loan left at the end of the year.

When I moved out, my flat cost about £4000 a year, and there's no way I spent £9,000 on food/travel/going out etc.

Even in London I would think that was high. Although in St Andrews it's not uncommon to pay £500 a month for a flat, so it depends where you are. Friends elsewhere were in big houses for less than I was paying for a room in a flat.

Brdgrl if you earn over the threshold meaning through no fault of their own they get less money do you actually think you shouldn't contribute?
Lots of unis discourage part time jobs plus some courses mean you are there 9-5 or on a variable timetable so it's impossible anyway and you have to study at home the rest of the time!

Of course they don't have to go to uni. But I feel the option to go without huge debt if possible is better. I put of uni myself a few years due to being unable to afford to go ( my parents earnt plenty so I was eligible for little, but wouldn't give me any either so basically meant I was stuffed!). If they decide not to go then we can give it to them as and when we feel suitable ( it's saved under our names not theirs), so can be house deposit/ travel/ car etc)

I agree with what OwThatHurt said in terms of teaching them to cook, to shop for bargains (right time of day - going to the right shops or the market - charity shops), and things like putting jumpers on rather than heating / walking rather than getting the bus / having a £7.50 phone contract rather than a £30 one / not being afraid to be seen in public without a face full of make up / being able to enjoy or entertain oneself without going clubbing night after night / taking a packed lunch rather than buying food out, and so forth, are all really valuable things to give to your dc, whether they go to university or not.

We've paid their accommodation.

They'll all have loans to pay back, but even if we'd paid their living expenses I imagine they'd have got out the maximum they were allowed, so we've made them think about the amount they spend on food/drink/enjoying themselves.

We've been saving up for a lot of years. Enough to buy a flat so we've not lost totally on rent.