A reasonable Student allowance?

[deejay]

For anyone with a kid who is about to start Uni, or already has one attending, what is a reasonable weekly or monthly allowance outside of accommodation, bills or tuition fees - i.e. food, social and general living allowance? For the first year we are looking to fund this rather than them take a loan. Keen to get a reasonable balance between not having them eat beans every day, but also not funding daily take-ways and nights out every night! thanks

[Omegamanic]

Not sure if any of this helps at all, as all situations are different:

https://www.gov.uk/student-finance/c...ltime-students

Although the figure available for students living with parents seems higher than I would agree with my kids.

But not taking account of accommodation, travelling costs to/from Uni, and probably a lot of other things to be fair (clothes, holidays, laptops, materials etc. etc.) I budgeted for 100 a week for food and social etc. - but then they are spoilt a little by grand parents and other family members and have access to savings that have funded since birth if they needed to.

[noTAGlove]

For the first year we are looking to fund this rather than them take a loan.

Either fund them all the way through if you believe they are going to be high earners after university, or have them take full loans.

It makes no sense to partially fund them. Just means there is more of a chance that you fully end up paying off the loan after 30-odd years.

You have until May 2023 to decide, so you can fund them now, and if later on you decide a loan is better you have until May 2023 to retrospectively apply for the first year of studies. Suggest you read this;

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/st...-fees-changes/

[redsox78]

For anyone with a kid who is about to start Uni, or already has one attending, what is a reasonable weekly or monthly allowance outside of accommodation, bills or tuition fees - i.e. food, social and general living allowance? For the first year we are looking to fund this rather than them take a loan. Keen to get a reasonable balance between not having them eat beans every day, but also not funding daily take-ways and nights out every night! thanks

[I'm a unit lecturer and have run undergrad degrees]

1. All first years of degrees are 'pass-fail' years and never count towards the final award of the degree. Therefore there is plenty of ability for students who put some effort in to both study and work. I'll be sunned if they can't manage their uni work easily and also work 15 hours a week. Second and especially third year are different (almost all degrees will award the degree based on 75% year three 25% year two with 100% year three if it works out better).

2. What they choose to spend is their choice, insofar as they need to learn the responsibility to manage money. They are regarded as adults (so for example without their permission you cannot find out from Uni what is happening with their performance or attendance on the degree).
If their accommodation and bills are covered (and they will likely be included in halls costs /. arranged accommodation), and they have a new laptop (which they WILL need - I'd advise a MacBook Air at education discount pricing), there will be nothing they 'require' bar money to buy food, go out, travel if they want. So it is as long as piece of string.

3. In other words, the cost are cost of being an adult where they live. So, you can actually work it out. Sit one evening and say "this is what it would cost to get the stuff I/we think you need from Asda, beyond that you can do it yourself". In other words, when my kids go I am not giving them money to go out, that's their responsibility to manage and figure out. If I didn't want them to get student credit via a bank account I ​migh give them something but I'd be far more inclined to get them to work during the summer before and save, and get a job during year one, maybe year two.

Basically after fees, accommodation bills and a laptop, it is as expensive or as cheap as you want. But even in expensive student cities like London or Manchester, there are still plenty of branches of Tesco, Asda and Quality Save ;)

[JonRA]

Either fund them all the way through if you believe they are going to be high earners after university, or have them take full loans.

It makes no sense to partially fund them. Just means there is more of a chance that you fully end up paying off the loan after 30-odd years.

You have until May 2023 to decide, so you can fund them now, and if later on you decide a loan is better you have until May 2023 to retrospectively apply for the first year of studies. Suggest you read this;

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/st...-fees-changes/

Absolutely - part funding is potentially the worst of both worlds

[Omegamanic]

Either fund them all the way through if you believe they are going to be high earners after university, or have them take full loans.

It makes no sense to partially fund them. Just means there is more of a chance that you fully end up paying off the loan after 30-odd years.

You have until May 2023 to decide, so you can fund them now, and if later on you decide a loan is better you have until May 2023 to retrospectively apply for the first year of studies. Suggest you read this;

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/st...-fees-changes/

That's a very good point - my two don't qualify for an UK student loan options, so it removes that choice - but it does appear to be a sensible option.

[redsox78]

Not sure if any of this helps at all, as all situations are different:

https://www.gov.uk/student-finance/c...ltime-students

Although the figure available for students living with parents seems higher than I would agree with my kids.

But not taking account of accommodation, travelling costs to/from Uni, and probably a lot of other things to be fair (clothes, holidays, laptops, materials etc. etc.) I budgeted for 100 a week for food and social etc. - but then they are spoilt a little by grand parents and other family members and have access to savings that have funded since birth if they needed to.

Clothes is always a funny one. If they have clothes now what do they need for the next 18 months of uni? Where are they moving to, the arctic?! Maybe this tees me off because every freshers week and first week of uni is full of students who come into class with bags from Selfridges. I'll never forger the start of last term when two students were comparing the alloys on their cars...and no I don't work at a redbrick :)

Believe it or not, a common first year complaint we get is the difficulty of finding car parking spaces near the building, often these are students with a halls place within a mile!

Seriously though, uni is as expensive as anyone wants to make it. The simple version is "you are moving to x, what do you need a week to live there?". There is no special extra cost of Uni, if anything it is cheaper (no council tax bill, lots of student discounts etc etc).

[reecie]

We did it the other way around to an extent. The loan obviously covers tuition fees. We then paid the rent which is the greater expense since the actual "living allowance" part of that side of the loan system is never enough anyway and then they used the loan for their living expenses. Both managed (having finished in the last few years) with that arrangement without any other debt. They did go to Newcastle and Leeds where the housing/living costs were not too bad.

[chrisdobson45]

I paid for accommodation and provided a monthly allowance for both mine. Accommodation was in the order of £6k per annum, allowance was £300 per month (each). Accommodation was a mixture of student halls and privately owned slums (think of Men Behaving Badly meets The Young Ones...)

I saw no point in them being saddled with even more debt that that for tuition fees, especially with the interest rates being charged.

[lewie]

Both mine had student loans for tuition and accommodation- I gave them a bit of money but both worked jobs while they were at uni

[xellos99]

you see what the real world expenditure is and take it from there because everyone will be different.

surely you can trust them to be grown up and give you honest figures

[TaketheCannoli]

I agree however that's a very privileged position to be in. We didn't realise (why would we?) how skewed the whole system is until our eldest started Uni last year.

If your parents can afford to support you financially then you can move away and have the full Uni experience. If your parental income is at the lowest end you get the maximum loan and can also afford to go away and not have to work to support yourself (they're real examples of people in our group).

If you're like my daughter and her friends who have parents who currently have a decent household income but can't afford to help them financially (those of us in 'the middle') then your choices are limited. You either stay at home to study or be prepared to move away and have to work alongside your studies. For my daughter and her friends who all wanted to move away, the thought of a new city, new people, unclear Uni work commitments and having to find work was too much. Those friends who have been able to move away have parents at the higher and lower ends that I described above.

So, not everyone has the same opportunities and the playing field is definitely not level.

I saw no point in them being saddled with even more debt that that for tuition fees, especially with the interest rates being charged.

[Ivan Drago]

Whatever you give them won’t be enough and they’ll spend it all and need more !


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[lewie]

From year 2 both mine shared private accommodation with friends and both decided to take charge of the household bills ( rightly or wrongly this was my suggestion) peace of mind knowing the bills were paid - paid dividends as they both are now fully aware of household bills and expenses- unlike fellow housemates
Due to my household income (sub £42k then) both mine had full grants

[Dave+63]

My daughter took the loans as they’re not really a debt to be concerned about. She’s just started a new job and, assuming she carries on working, will probably pay the debt off before the thirty years st which it is written off.

I also gave her £200 per month to help out. She was at Nottingham and managed. She didn’t come to me for more at any point.

[lewie]

Whatever you give them won’t be enough and they’ll spend it all and need more !


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Definitely not my experience

[redsox78]

My daughter took the loans as they’re not really a debt to be concerned about. She’s just started a new job and, assuming she carries on working, will probably pay the debt off before the thirty years st which it is written off.

I also gave her £200 per month to help out. She was at Nottingham and managed. She didn’t come to me for more at any point.

This seems spot on. I genuinely can't fathom how a student wouldn't manage on £200 a month spare - after bills and rent - on top of all the finance / loans they get, stuff that as Dave says it's not a great debt too be concerned about. But even if it is a debt to be concerned about I would really love to know what students are spending on. It might be different in leafy campus, but in a city uni there are part time jobs all over the place, and they will not affect their study at all. Indeed, degrees these days allow for a degree of part time working.

[redsox78]

From year 2 both mine shared private accommodation with friends and both decided to take charge of the household bills ( rightly or wrongly this was my suggestion) peace of mind knowing the bills were paid - paid dividends as they both are now fully aware of household bills and expenses- unlike fellow housemates
Due to my household income (sub £42k then) both mine had full grants

That's the way to do it

My cousin - the only other person in my family who went to Uni - graduated two years ago, he didn't get grants, just the full Student Loan (which helps), and what he could get from banks via student accounts. He was from Lancaster, moved to Manchester - not a cheap place to be a student - and he managed fine as his mum and dad could not afford to give him anything. He did bar work to make up his cash.

Oh, most uni's will have hardship loans if someone is really stuck, and there is a lot of paid university work offered now. On our degree we pay some students each year to mentor those new students, others get paid to work open and visit days. The pay for this stuff is good, £15 an hour ish. Beyond that some work on clearing, internal services stuff.

[Halitosis]

The city/location of study has a sizeable impact on costs.

Our oldest is about to start his third year (Glasgow) and we provide enough to cover his accommodation costs (including utilities, insurance TV licence etc.). His student loan is sufficient to cover his food costs and a few pints in the student union bar, but not enough for the amount of socialising he would like, so he has a part time job at Lidl which provides enough for him to live it up. Over the 4 month summer holidays he's been practically full time so he's paid for his lads trip to Magaluf and a few pairs of Air Jordans. Personal financial management and responsibility is one of the more valuable learnings in uni years.

We also pay for him to join us on family holidays - as much for our pleasure as his.

I would also advise (especially in the first year) any funding you provide is drip-fed weekly to ensure he/she doesn't run out by the end of freshers week.

[Eddiex]

Four kids at Uni over the last 10 years. As suggested earlier in the thread - full loans, new laptop and £200 per month for food. All had a small part time job to fund drinking, etc. Seems to have worked for my lot.


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[redsox78]

The city/location of study has a sizeable impact on costs.

Our oldest is about to start his third year (Glasgow) and we provide enough to cover his accommodation costs (including utilities, insurance TV licence etc.). His student loan is sufficient to cover his food costs and a few pints in the student union bar, but not enough for the amount of socialising he would like, so he has a part time job at Lidl which provides enough for him to live it up. Over the 4 month summer holidays he's been practically full time so he's paid for his lads trip to Magaluf and a few pairs of Air Jordans. Personal financial management and responsibility is one of the more valuable learnings in uni years.

We also pay for him to join us on family holidays - as much for our pleasure as his.

I would also advise (especially in the first year) any funding you provide is drip-fed weekly to ensure he/she doesn't run out by the end of freshers week.

This is all excellent advice and pretty much the perfect approach. Lots of excitement, especially in cities, will try to make uni expensive, but it's the responsibility of the students and their families to say "you can't afford everything". It's hard for some parents to accept this but that last sentence above is the key thing, at some point -and it needs to happen during uni, not at the end - learning to be an adult with all the responsibilities it entails is a key part of all this.

Oh, and a bonus thing. if your child says they need money for books, they are either using it for something else, or their uni is crap. For a multitude of reasons (the very financial stuff we are talking about, and linked to equalities, and other things) any decent degree will provide what is needed electronically. I'd rather read stuff on paper, no doubt, but it has not been required for a while now, everything is electronic (hence why a laptop is far more important). Buying books is a luxury (bizarrely!).

[tintin]

My eldest has just finished his degree and is starting a year of teacher training, both in Cornwall. He got loaned up and that covered his tuition fees and most of his rent / bills. We provided a small amount to cover the balance of his rent / bills (less than 200 a term) and then gave him 50 a week to cover essentials. He got a job in a bar, working part time during the term and full time in the easter / summer holidays and getting furlough during covid, which left him plenty of flex for beyond essentials but he was working for it. Now he is teacher training he still gets the loans but he also gets a tax free sum from UKG as they are desperate in the teaching profession, which covers the balance of his rent plus allows him to run a (cheap) car which is essential to get around Cornwall. It also allows us to stop the 50 a week.

[Wolfie]

They’ll be able to manage a part time job…. Mine do 8-10 hours a week and work Christmas/ summers too

My daughter and son get £170 a month whilst away and £zero during the summer, on top of this they get as many return rail tickets they want or need, neither would ever ask me for anymore as they’d already know the answer I’d give ‘em!

Expectations regarding lifestyle seem to has developed since I was at Uni mind! I worked out my amounts quite carefully…. Enough to keep them comfortable and not so much they don’t strive towards supporting their own lifestyle choices too

[tixntox]

Use a few episodes of Rising Damp as an example for them to follow. It didn't do us any harm!

[bloater]

My lads going down the student loan route, what he gets won’t cover the rent.
He worked this summer but has had some serious health problems so spent a lot of time on ssp, which has limited his savings.
We’re looking at giving him about £70 a week to cover the rest of the rent and his food, socialising etc.

[craig1912]

We’ve paid his rent and he’s lived off whatever loan he has got. He’s saved enough to fund his a masters year (you only get a tuition fee loan for Masters) and works around 10 hours a week.

[jukeboxs]

£300pm (incl. food) for each of ours (their loans cover accomodation, and fees where relevant). Their courses don't allow the time for a part-time job (vet med and dentistry).

[Madness]

My eldest is about to start 3rd year doing Chemistry but already knows he is joining the RAF as a pilot next summer and my youngest starts on Sunday doing Economics, Finance and International business. They get the max loan you get without giving income or earning over the limit and I add the rest so its the same as a max loan. The accommodation costs are the biggest burden, just over £6k each so that leaves them with about £900 per term. They've both saved up prior to going work during the holidays to give themselves extra cash. Seemed to work well for eldest but younger one is more...........free with his spending. Cost to me is about £800 a month.