PDF Parents' Guide To Student Finance 2010/11 discussion

Hi

I have recently been made redundant but still supporting son #2 at Uni. I have received a redundancy package but I am not sure if it is counted as income. I know that upto £30k it is tax free (and therefore not counted as income?) BUT I also have received an amount over £30k for various elements of the package.

Can anyone clarify if it is counted as income of grant/loan purposes.

Many thanks

Hi, I suppose this is a better class of problem & I know that Martin's guide discourages parents etc helping out their kids by paying for their fees, but we are in the position that my daughters have each been left a sum of money in a will, which they would like to use towards their education.

It would not cover the full amount of tuition fees though, so is it possible to self fund a portion of the fees, say one or two years; can you just pay a certain amount and take out a loan for the balance?

Still exploring options and quite new to this, so I don't want to start a debate on whether this is right or wrong way to do it, just asking if its possible?

Thanks.

fiscalfreckles wrote: »

Still exploring options and quite new to this, so I don't want to start a debate on whether this is right or wrong way to do it, just asking if its possible?

Wouldn't dream of it!

Lokolo wrote: »

You can take out partial tuition loan and the university will then bill your daughters the rest of the money.

The forms have always asked how much loan you want, so this is entirely possible.

However, if my offspring were in this fortunate position, I would encourage them to look into the possibility of taking out the full loan, tying up the inheritance for the length of the course at the best possible rate of interest, and then decide at the end whether to pay the loan off in whole or in part with the inheritance. And that decision can be repeated over the years: maybe on graduation a deposit for a house would be more useful, or fees for a postgrad course (which do not automatically get funding), or a 'trip of a lifetime', or maybe just hang onto the inheritance a bit longer and see what happens with the job market.

Because once the inheritance has gone, it's gone, and can't be used again or in any other way. Whereas if the fees etc are on a loan, then that loan only has to be repaid 'as and when' their income is large enough - savings not taken into account.

At the risk of straying into discussion, I can't see that the new system is going to work out any better value for the government, because more and more students are never going to pay their loans off!

insomniac03 wrote: »

Is this guide going to be updated for the student finance package coming in for 2012? Its a fab resource and I'd love to recommend it to parents but don't want to recommend out of date advice!

the details of the student package for 2012 are still unclear - lots of the final rules about repayment haven't been made and it isn't clear yet what support will be offered by unis for those on lower incomes. i'm sure the article will be written, but it's impossible to do just yet as it's all so murky on the details!!

this blog might be a good starting point though:
http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2011/05/26/student-finance-2012-changes-%E2%80%93-its-time-to-tackle-the-ignorance/

hello
I had a student loan of 1000 in 1995, the guy told me I needed my parents signature in order to recieve it.
later on I found this was a lie, in fact if you are an independent student living away from home, or estranged from your familly parental support is not always possible. you are led to believe getting parental support will benefit your application. All they are doing is getting guarantors for the loans, parents. I dont know if it still goes on I have looked at the student loan application process and get to a support for your application page. havent been into it any further as
I said its a long time since I had a loan.
technically I would think its not always possible to have support for an application for a loan then what happens?