Bursary Application

[samsub]

HelloI am just going through the form for DS's senior school Bursary application and it asks:" Please explain any reasons why net assets cannot be converted or utilised to pay school fees."Yes in our case our only asset which has some "net" in the property (although we do have some savings (for a rainy day) which is not sufficient to pay for the entire senior school period). We recently bought our first property and there is no question of re-mortgaging the house to release equity to pay the school fees.I am not sure how the Bursar would look into our finances, but we have kept aside £40k in our savings. We have kept a portion of these savings aside, one reason is to fund non routine travel costs arising from medical emergency and ad-hoc medical expenses to support my mother who lives overseas. This may be due to hospitalisation or general age related ailment (She is 73 year old). I have allowed three routine overseas trips in a year and making it clear in my application that these are necessary trips to ensure my mom's well being. Do you think it will go against us.We recently bought our first house 3 months ago, and the equity in the house is 30%. Again, will this work against our application.I am trying to articulate in the best way possible to answer the above question.Any thoughts will be high appreciated

Seriously?

You want a bursary but you have £40k sat in a rainy day fund and you have 30% equity in the house? Why should you get a bursary?

OP if you need a bursary to privately educate your child I wouldn't even consider sending them. When we get rid of the Tories it's likely VAT will be applied on school fees. Schools will be losing fee-paying parents who can't afford this and will be fighting to survive - they may well have to cancel any bursary places they have. Also, if you have 40K in savings I don't think you have a hope in hell!

Ignore @user18's response. It is legitimate to have assets and not reduce yourself to rock bottom before asking for a bursary.

It is also legitimate to hold equity and be working towards owning without a mortgage by the time you retire, so long as your home is modestly sized and not in the poshest area.

There is no harm in asking.

I would respond along the lines of:
"Our only major assets are (a) the equity in our home, which was a recent first-time-buyer purchase and the equity is the deposit we put down in order to secure the loan. We would not be able to restructure that loan to release that equity, and if it was possible it would be unwise as the repayments would then become unaffordable and put us at risk of losing our home. (b) an amount of £40k in savings which we have built up because we know that at some unknowable time we will need to spend it on unpredictable expenses connected to the failing health of my 73 year old mother who lives in (country) and spending that reserve on school fees woukd be irresponsible.

School bursars are human people and are fully capable of understanding the complexities of balancing financial commitments. I can't guarantee you will get a bursary but you definitely don't have to have absolutely nothing in order to be considered.

Just answer honestly with what you've put in your OP. The bursary application process usually includes an interview where issues like this can be discussed in more depth, so there should be an opportunity for you and the school to explore expectations further.

Ime schools vary considerably on what bursary they are prepared to offer on the basis of the same set of financial circumstances. You can be offered a bursary if you have equity in your property or some savings, but £40K is quite a large sum to ringfence for a rainy day. Generally you do have to show that you are prepared to make sacrifices or compromises to contribute as much as possible to the fees.

And as Biscuitsneeded said, think carefully about whether this is a road you want to start down at all, given the uncertainty over VAT.

@Biscuitsneeded ·

Are you aware of the fact that part of the bursary fund in private schools comes partially from the government? That is why the team that visits houses before to see if bursary would be suitable , is an independent body and not related to school

Just be honest. Frankly having savings 'just in case' is non starter - anyone could say the same.

@JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything

I didn't know that was the case. Our children's school suggests bursary funds are provided by legacies from alumni.

That stopped in 1998....

You shouldn't get a bursary.

If you have 30% equity in a house purchased only three months ago, surely the school will expect that you should have put less money into the house and retained some for school fees? Also keeping aside £40k (!) to fund possible medical treatment and trips to your overseas mother, while very worthy, is unlikely to land well with the bursar either. Everyone could come up with equally valid reasons why they need to retain a nice pot of money just in case....

I worked in the Bursary office of a private school from the early 2000s until I retired a couple of years ago and I've never heard of this. It certainly wasn't something that our school was signed up to - and I knew of no others that were.

If you have 30% equity in a house purchased only three months ago, surely the school will expect that you should have put less money into the house and retained some for school fees?

Equity in your house isn’t going to stop you getting a bursary, they won’t expect you to have 100% mortgages.
However the 40k may be too much in savings.

There’s always lots of misinformation on these threads though, many don’t believe people earning 80k for example would qualify for a bursary.

I’m very curious to hear more about what you mean, @JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything ? In our area, bursary places for independent schools are funded by fees paid by overseas applicants, and by charitable foundations that have existed for centuries. They aren’t raised by current UK parents and certainly not by the UK government. There are some individual cases where the government pays for boarding school fees for the children of military/diplomatic staff, or for SEN students who can’t cope in state schools, but those aren’t normal bursaries those are government funded fees.

Perhaps the school local to you is different to those near me?

OP different schools have very different policies on who gets a bursary so you aren’t going to get much helpful insight here. (You may get some random
haters turning up on the thread now that Starmer has turned education into a political football, though.)

To answer your question, my feeling is the bursar will not expect you to remortgage your home but your savings will definitely be taken into account, and, if you are financially able to support your MIL, again the bursar will take that into account. They are looking to give discounts to people who are prioritising education but can’t afford the total fees, not people who could pay but are prioritising someone else. I’m not criticising you doing that (it’s great!) just explaining the bursar’s thinking. You’re much better off just filling in the form and waiting to see how it goes, Mumsnet can only give hassle and misinformation on this issue.

And as others have said do consider that fees may go up much more than usual if Labiur gets in, depending whether the school chooses to pass on the total VAG cost or fund it in some other way eg more students.

@swiftimania

Around two years ago I was on the quest of getting 11+ books. One of the mum's who I was talking to about the books happened to reveal to me that she is in the team that visits homes before the bursary is awarded. We spoke in reference to Hampton Boys School. She worked then in the independent investigation team. To my surprise, she told me that not all of the funds for bursary are coming directly from school. Apparently, there are other sources. I vaguely remember that she mentioned either local authority? or government support. I cannot say 100 percent but I remember vividly that conversation as I was surprise to learn that non private funds would also be contributed towards bursaries

Ah, that’s interesting, thanks for replying. I expect she wss thinking of the government funding that’s available for SEN children / children of the military etc, I know they spend quite a bit on boarding schools, but I guess we’ll never be sure what she meant.

A rainy-day fund of £40k does seem quite high. I am sure that lots of parents paying full fees wouldn’t have those savings. You could probably cover the needs you have mentioned from holding £30k or £20k.

However, I think the way to word it is that you would potentially be able to release some of that £40k at a later date if not needed for your MIL - e.g. to contribute to fees at sixth form stage. Logically, the likelihood of needing to spend the full amount decreases with every year that passes.

There is the odd charity that pay towards bursaries but definitely not the government.

Or indeed military- but that is only for boarding schools.

So many people quote illness and dying and sick parents as a reason to not be able to spend their own money on fees and things. Not saying yours isn't true but there are SO many saying it that it's a bit like 'the dog ate my homework.'

I used to audit bursary applications. You would be expected to use the £40k towards fees I’m afraid. The equity in your house is fine though.

This isn't true at all. And not all schools use an independent company to assess bursary applications. Many do it themselves.

Many years ago, there was a thing called the Assisted Places Scheme which did indeed provide government funds for children who needed financial support to access independent schools. It has not been in operation for about a quarter of a century.

Then maybe she lied to me. I don't know

@JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything , Hampton school has established a charity called FitzwygramFoundation to fund free places, it's funded by donations, it's not funded by the fees income from parents, I expect this is what she meant.