Any advice here from anyone who's children have gone to Uni recently?
I've been helping my nephew who just got a place at Uni for September, this is all very new to me as my eldest daughter isn't due to go until next year. It seems from checking online that anyone can take a loan of up to £9,250 for their university fee's per annum. However the maintenance grant is means tested, meaning that what you can borrow depends on your parents income (or I believe they call it 'household income').
So in the case of my nephew who has an a$$ of a dad who earns good money it seems he can only take a maintenance grant of £3,928 which isn't even enough to cover his halls of residence (about £5k) let alone eating as he predominantly lives currently with his father (don't ask). On the flip side if he lived currently with his mother he could take a maintenance grant of £8,430 and probably get by.
Seems a little unfair as it's based on the fact the parent will fund the university living expenses, which in this case the parent won't or to a very minimal extent (£150 a month!).
I need to look into further but unless I help him out as his father 'doesn't believe in university' he won't be able to go or will need to find a part time job nearby earning say £5k a year minimum. And I thought it was those from the less affluent backgrounds who may struggle.......
Anyone who's been through this/kids going to Uni recently know anything on the above and in particular maintenance grants that may help?
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Have a look here if you haven't already:
moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes#grantsgone
As has already been suggested, it's worth trying to put down his mums address as where he lives.
A lot of the unis themselves offer grants to particular students so thats something to look at. My housemate got £1k from the Uni each year.
Another one of my housemates worked for Sainsburys for 3 of the 4 years and that suited him well as he could work at a different branch when he went home for the holidays.
Also good to remember that whilst the halls may be expensive for the first year, in my case the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year rents were around half what they were in first year (although probably less than half as nice).
As Cabbles said, everyone gets hammered. It's not cheap when you get there as despite getting £9250 in fees for the academic year, they still charge for things like printing and photocopying. The tenancy agreement for the halls of residence forbids her to wash or dry clothes in her room, forcing her to use the on-site laundry which is £4 for one wash and £2 for one drying cycle (up to three cycles is recommended to fully dry her clothes)
As for the question asked, register your nephew at the address where the parent earns the least. That way the loan will be higher. But why they means test it is anyone's guess. Before this year it was a grant and needed to be means tested. Now, it's a loan and needs to be paid back anyway.
I did a course at uni that was very demanding hours wise compared to a lot (my friends doing business degrees had about 6-8 hours a week of lectures) but I would have still had enough time to get part-time work. In hindsight I should have donebut my fees were only just over £1k a year.
I worked full-time during my masters and that required more work than the first degree.
He's a good lad and will look for a job, but he was thinking of not going as he didn't want to drop out if finances became a major issue, If it comes to it I'll make up what he needs to live, I was always partly expecting it TBH.
Unfortunately that's the system we have. A part time job might be a good thing though, gets something on the CV, is good experience and teaches time and money management. Student towns usually have quite a few jobs going and a lot of the work will be cyclical based on term times anyway (meaning he can take the usual breaks).
As you say, what a parents income has to do with a 18/19 year old adult going to Uni I don't know. 98% of parents would of course help their son out, sadly my nephew is in the 2%.....
My daughter lives with her mum and gets quite a bit more than that.
Duncan's given good advice regarding social life.
The interest on my loan is Just over £5 a day. I will never clear the balance of it. However that's not really the point. The interest and payments are structures so you will not be able to ever clear the balance (unless mummy and daddy are rich and do it for you) this makes it a graduate tax and not a loan. In my view (as an analyst) calling it a loan is a lie. It's a tax on graduate earnings.
As such it is entirely possible to get a good graduate job with reasonable salary progression and never clear the balance but end up paying back, over the 30 year period, as much as 8 times what you borrowed.
It's a scam. Or at the very least it's a lie/trick.
But don't worry as it's all friendly debt and owned by the government (much like the debt to roland). Wrong. They hold the right to change the terms on it at any point in time. It has also been sold to loans company before you even start uni so of they shout loud enough the government will let them further screw you in 5 years time.
I don't in any way regret going. It was the best time of my life I've met some great friends and have memories that will last forever. Most importantly I have a good degree from top uni from that subject and good experiences with that.
Depends on a few things. If you have ambition to do well and earn well then you basically have to accept that you will be charged a graduate tax on earnings for the 30 years after graduating. You will also end up paying a lot more than you borrowed (up to 8 times more) and will be subsidising the people who have no ambition and went to a crap uni for a pointless course and end up never paying any back.
If you're willing to accept that and treat it as a tax and never let it bother you that the rich only pay the cost of their uni and you subsidise everyone else then it's worth it.
It's not just about the extortionate interest (currently 6.4%) but about how it's loaded. You are charged interest from the second you start your course. Your first few years of payments won't even cover the interest so the total amount still rises. By the time you earn enough to cover the interest you're a chunk of the way into the 30 years so there is little point repaying a lump sum even of you had it. Then if you continue paying the 9% you'll pay off small amounts so never clear the balance.
Basically think of it as a tax not a loan. They tax graduate earnings.
Of course the projections were inflation adjusted and so are slightly misleading. £35k in 30 years is worth significantly less than now. So earnings will be higher so repayments will be higher so in real terms thatv8 times will be less.
Still a scam in my eyes. It's loaded to be a tax so call it a tax.
Daughter not very happy when I told her 10 of us will be staying
The interest charged is misleading too, when I was doing my A-levels not once did I realise the "loan" I was about to get would have interest loaded onto it. Granted I didn't read the fine details as an 18 year old.
Agree it's a tax and not a loan, but then the graduate should have benefited from the degree which they ought to contribute towards.