Paying for uni accommodation before loan/grant

Stubert

kelloggs36 wrote: »

It's the same for student houses - my DD has to pay a month before she goes back and she has absolutely no money. She has not had a job this summer (nor last, or the one before) and her loan/grant just about covers the rent payments, I have no idea how she expects to manage to actually eat or pay bills. We can't help her with 2 other children to pay for (not at uni, but young children at home) but it is expected that we can, hence she gets nothing else. I love the way the Government expect things which can't happen, like expecting all students to work when there aren't any jobs!! They expect parental contributions when reality is very different to how they assess on paper.

It probably seems unfair that she has to pay her 2nd year accommodation before her rent, but I would assume she would have had the house from the 1st of July like a lot of student rents so could have lived there! A lot of landlords offer half summer rent for students as well.

Student areas tend to be really expensive for what you get anyway.

mumps wrote: »

My daughter is going into her second year, no problems in halls last year but has to pay a terms rent on student house before she gets her grant. She is lucky, if tired, as she has worked all summer and has £2k in the bank with holiday pay to follow. I suppose we would be finding the money for her if she hadn't had a job. It would be on my credit card I think as I dont have that much money lying around. Ridiculous but I suppose the landlord needs his rent. Thinking about it I suppose she could ask NatWest for an overdraft but I have tried to discourage her from getting into more debt than she has to. It is a difficult one.

If your daughter isn't even in an overdraft shes doing extremely well! At uni (and now just after graduation working for free), I've lived in my overdraft. Even if she doesn't need to use the overdraft it is interest free, so she could transfer that money out and put it into a savings account and accrue interest on it.

jillymit

We contacted Kent Uni finance and they said it would be no problem.

He would have to bring his paperwork to prove he was going to be receiving his loan / grant and they would scan the bar code on it to enable the Student Finance to release the funds , the fees would then be due as soon as he receives the money.
After a bit of digging on their web site I've also found that there is also Student Welfare dept which can arrange short term loans (interest free?) for those students who may have been late applying to student finance or those whos loans are delayed for some reason.
All of which is good news but I can't help thinking that Student Finance, however good the reasons are for paying out in in dribs and drabs rather than in one go make it really awkward to budget.
Edit. I can't help thinking that if he's big enough to apply for a loan and be charged interest on it, however small then surely he's big enough to get it all in one go and work out paying for his accommodation himself (ok, with his Mum!)

mumps

Stubert wrote: »

It probably seems unfair that she has to pay her 2nd year accommodation before her rent, but I would assume she would have had the house from the 1st of July like a lot of student rents so could have lived there! A lot of landlords offer half summer rent for students as well.

Student areas tend to be really expensive for what you get anyway.




If your daughter isn't even in an overdraft shes doing extremely well! At uni (and now just after graduation working for free), I've lived in my overdraft. Even if she doesn't need to use the overdraft it is interest free, so she could transfer that money out and put it into a savings account and accrue interest on it.

She has done well, she worked hard and saved during A levels, not that she didn't go out and enjoy herself but she did save hard and worked from end of A levels up to starting uni except for a holiday in Greece with some friends. She went off to uni with about £3k in savings so is a bit down this year but she should have about £2.5k in all. She has thought about taking the overdraft and saving it but she hasn't actually done anything about it. Does worry me a bit that she works so hard but she has had a week abroad with uni friends so hopefully she is still enjoying life.