Bad situation - any advice ?

DUTR

Shermanator123 wrote: »

Why does it matter what qualifications she gets? He has to pay for her till shes 19 anyway if shes still in education, I find it very sad that parents are moaning about financially providing for their children especially when the child wants to better themselves regardless of what course they are doing that is their choice not yours!!!

It matters in a sense as the time could be spent more wisely obtaining useful qualifications. Yes it could be viewed as sad, but it does seem the ones that find it sad are not the ones coughing up their own portion of net salary. It is not really only up to the child as it is not the child that is financing the deal, I'm sure it be thought about more wisely if some '3rd party' did not have to finance the deal.

Shermanator123

Agreed DUTR but maybe the child is unsure of what university course to take just yet or maybe wants to learn a different subject the transition from A-Levels to Uni is hard I know i did it myself years ago and I also stayed on an extra year to do AS levels as you are only allowed to do so many A-levels in the 2years I think its 4 it may have changed.

Duncombe

Shermanator123 wrote: »

the transition from A-Levels to Uni is hard

Thats what 1st year is for....

Shermanator123

Well in that case im so glad my parents didnt force me to go to Uni straight away just because they didnt want to support me for the extra year otherwise I would have chosen the wrong course that extra helped me and gave me extra time to make the right decision. Many of my friends quit Uni after a few months because they had chosen the wrong course........

Blue_Horizon

Does anyone know whether a Higher Diploma is further or advanced education?

dizzydusty

If its a HND (Higher National Diploma) then for benefit purposes its advanced higher education. As far as I am aware child benefit is payable if the child is continuing with Non Advanced higher education which is up to a NC level (National Certificate).

Also, how is she funding her second time at college? I was under the impression that once funding had been used for a particular level of education that additional funding would only apply if the next lot of education was at a higher level...may be mistaken as I dont have kids at college or uni!

Blue_Horizon

A higher diploma is equivalent to 7 GCSEs grades A*-C.

Let me clear about why I posted this thread in the first place. My D had said that she wanted a gap year to travel as wanted a break from studying. She was also worried about her results and was prepared to retake if necessary. She had applied to uni's and got conditional offers. Her results were great 4 x As.

In my view a gap year with some travel and voluntary work would have added to her experience and something that would have been useful in any person statement when she reapplied next year. What I can't understand is what a Diploma does for her. She has admitted that this is more about keeping her occupied, but why not go straight onto to uni?

I have no issue with financially supporting my children, that doesn't mean that I have to agree with the decisions they make. When I spoke to her about the financial impact, she laughed it off, saying that it wasn't too much money.

I don't think that I have any choice but to pay until she reaches 19, but I am having to start out all over again having just bought a house and this will make finances tighter than they could have been.

Gorgeous_George

The problem is that the pwc may well have influenced the decision to maximise the CS.

I am in a similar position and I know that hardly any of the £300 that I pay each month benefits my child as it funds my ex's debt addiction. I hope that the extra education pays dividends in the future, however, I think securing a job today will be much easier than trying to do so in two or three years' time. Of course, I may be biased.

GG

sarflee

It isn't just the OP paying for it, so is the taxpayer.

I can imagine that many, many parent's who claim a good amount of tax credits/child benefit and child support are making it, how can I put this, attractive for their children to stay on. Why not? To some parents it can mean the loss of over £180pw. A poster on this board has actually stated that their child is staying on at 6th form for an extra two years so that it can help them, as a single mother, pay rent, bills etc.

ISurely nobody needs more than 4 A levels at grade A to qualify for a job/uni/college etc. Why are we funding this, unless it is a diploma/qualification for a specific vocation!

gratefulforhelp_2

Taxpayer reaps the rewards later over the working life of the graduate, with graduates earning more over a lifetime. It may be that one of the A levels is general studies, not always counted for uni entry.
Maybe the student wants to do a degree in a subject for which she needs a particular A level and came to this realisation late?