How much for DC uni?

[Twobigsapphires]

Eldest DC is off to uni next year. I know contributions and individual financial situations are all different but how much are you spending on supporting your dc through uni and / or saving with them not living at home? Interested to hear how others are managing and approaching it.
Also posted in ‘Money’ thread.

Depends on many variables. But in simple terms, in England the maximum loan is considered enough for a student to live on. If a student does not qualify for the full amount (assessed using the household income of home address) parents are expected to make up the difference. In reality, accommodation can take up the majority of a full loan, and is often more than smaller allowances - the minimum loan is usually less, especially in first year halls .

DS gets the minimum loan. We pay his rent and phone, he lives off his loan. His second year accommodation doesn't include bills, so we are playing it by ear at the moment, and expecting to have to help out there at some point.

£6000 each for rent. We also pay for phones and car costs/insurance each. same as PP they only get minimum loan, would not be enough to cover their rent. One has a job the other not yet but first year.

We get the minimum loan. I give my son £50 a week for food and some entertainment. That is more than enough - he usually has money left over and spends 20-30 a week on food. He does have some money he saved from a job before uni so any extras he pays for himself.
We pay for his phone. He has a bike which he uses to travel to uni. If he had to use public transport more I'd probably give him a bit more than £50.
We use his minimum loan to pay his accommodation and top up with whatever needed. Last year this would have been another £600 (but we did get a discount because of covid so was actually less). This is in Nottingham and the rent was reasonable. I know some other unis accommodation was much more expensive.
I know alot of people pay the accommodation and give them the loan to live off but I don't like that way of doing it. He has a set amount to live off (£50) and he works with that - I think that is a good life skill.

Minimum loan here. 2 DC at Uni currently and we pay for accommodation for both (£1250 odd per month cumulatively) They live off the loan for food etc and if they want to spend more than that, they spend their own savings or will have to get a job. DC no 3 starts in under 2 years and as long as DC1 is finished by then, we'll cope. I keep concentrating on the positives in terms of life choices after that, but it's a bit of a big fat shock when you first find out the financial side.

We pay £10k pa for accommodation ( have been saving for this over the last 7 years). Student loan for living expenses.

We pay the rent (first year self catering hall) and phone and give her £500pcm to cover everything else.

You do save money as well with them not being at home....I guess you need to look to your own circumstances, but I estimated I'd save monthly 50 on lunches at college, 80 on food, 18 on gym, 10 on clubs.
I also found I did at least one load less of washing/drying a week. You could turn down heating in their room I guess as well. Also every time you go out for a meal as a family you have 1 less mouth to feed so meals out become cheaper. We like to eat out 2-3 times a month so that was quite a saving.

I think it's only fair to top up to what the maximum loan is if they don't get it because of what you earn.

That was our plan, but with one thing or another we have ended up paying the rent while our son gets the rest. Next year, I'm hoping his accommodation will be cheaper, so back to plan A.

I've worked out what we will need to contribute over the next 7 years (more to come!) and put something aside every month to cover it over a 5 year period to give myself a buffer.

Not sure what we'll save with one fewer in the house yet, but we've halved our milk order and the toilet paper is definitely lasting longer 😏

@Seeline

Depends on many variables. But in simple terms, in England the maximum loan is considered enough for a student to live on. If a student does not qualify for the full amount (assessed using the household income of home address) parents are expected to make up the difference. In reality, accommodation can take up the majority of a full loan, and is often more than smaller allowances - the minimum loan is usually less, especially in first year halls .

DS gets the minimum loan. We pay his rent and phone, he lives off his loan. His second year accommodation doesn't include bills, so we are playing it by ear at the moment, and expecting to have to help out there at some point.

We do exactly the same. DD lives on the minimum loan amount and we pay her accommodation, which is actually slightly cheaper than halls now she is in her second year.

@pinkysmum why do you say "we' when you're talking about the loan, it's his, not yours!

I paid for everything and gave them £250 per month for food and books. Second and third born had their books bought for them too. They were studying STEM subjects.
First born had his Bachelors and Masters funded by us. The government funded his Ph.D.
Third born has just graduated and walked into a job earning £39k per year. He is saving for a deposit on a house.
My late husband wanted them to leave university debt free (like we did in the 80’s) and be in a position to buy a house.
I am lucky that we were able to do this for them.

There are so many jobs for young people right now they should be able to support themselves with their loan and a part time job.

[quote TheSmallAssassin]@pinkysmum why do you say "we' when you're talking about the loan, it's his, not yours![/quote]
"We" as a family. We worked out together the best way to manage the finances that would work for us. What he got as a loan was based on our income so it has a lot to do with us, even though the loan his in his name. I'm afraid if "we" are expected to fork out several thousand pounds a year to get him through uni then "we" are going to have a say in it.
I think a young person of 18 who has never lived on their own needs advice and guidance of a more mature person to work out their finances.

I'm on a low income so DD qualified for the maximum loan. This was enough to cover accommodation, food, and all other expenses. I only paid for her mobile phone contract and her dad gave her £100 per month which she mostly saved in an isa.

Four years later her student loan is a whopping £62k but I'm glad me not having any money didn't stop her being able to go to uni and get two degrees.

Nothing. DC gets a bursary from the university though, and feels quite well off.

We wanted to avoid loans if at all possible
Give ours 1k a month and pay for phone,contact lenses
They also get 500 from grand parents

DS has student loan to pay fees (I look at it as graduate tax rather than debt), we pay for his accommodation, phone + £100/week for living costs. He also has a PT job.

Minimum loan. We pay accomodation fees and he lives off the maintenance loan. GP pay tuition fees.

Ds1 is paying for accommodation out of his minimum maintenance loan, we will top up the cost as needed.

We also pay him £100 a week living costs and sim cost for phone. It may be a bit too much, not sure yet, he’s a first year.

Ours got minimum loan amount
We paid for accommodation, a phone contract and travel to and from home to uni ( all lived away).
Apart from the youngest they all took a part time job as well to allow them more spending money.

5-6k for rent

£250 a month

We had ds1 and dd at uni at the same time for a year…and now dd and ds2 are at uni at the same time

Oh sorry

They haven’t taken out the maintenance loan

ds will get the minimum loan £4,750 from SAAS (Scotland). That works out at £91/week over 52 weeks, if he wants/needs more he will need to work some of the holidays. I hope he can cover the majority of his costs from that (including clothes).

If he goes to uni locally he plans to stay at home and the 40 minute commute will hopefully be free thanks to the new scheme coming in in Scotland next year where buses will be free to under 22s.

If he goes further afield in Scotland we'll have to somehow come up with around, I think, £5k a year for rent.

We based it on the maximum loan amount but Ds gets the minimum loan amount. His accommodation is just over £6k so we fund him £100 per week which totals up to the maximum loan. We think it is too much but are giving it a whole semester to work out what he really needs. He definitely isn't spending that much but worries about the responsibility of spending our money.

I completely agree with Pinky that considering his loan is based on our household income we feel very involved with his finances.

He also receives money from a Grandparent which covers his phone, Netflix and Prime with some left over too.

DS has minimum (for London). This just covers his halls rent.
We pay his mobile phone and also send him £80 per week for food / travel/ living.

He has a job here back home in a restaurant so did a couple of shifts when he came home last week so will have about £100 go into his account next week. He seems to be budgeting well so far.