A possibly stupid question about loans / fees

Savvy_Sue

If someone wants to point me to the idiot's guide website for student loans and tuition fees from the parental point of view, I'd be grateful. I can then scare myself rigid about what we're going to need to find for eldest hopefully heading off to uni this autumn (:eek: what happened to my baby?)

But failing that, I think I've read that the application forms are sent out soon after the end of the tax year, and that the questions are based on parental earnings for the tax year about to end. Which is good news because DH and I usually get our payrises in May.

But is that how parental income is calculated for both the loans and for tuition fees? or is tuition fees different?

Sorry if I'm being an eejit: have adopted classic ostrich position since grants were phased out ... kept hoping someone would see sense.

stuwilky

Sue,
https://www.aimhigher.ac.uk

I am presuming that Sue Junior will be starting in September 2005 for this info.

Tuition Fees and Student Loans are assessed at the same time using the info on the same form (which is good - once you get the form youll see why!)

It is worked out on household income (i believe it is gross - but cant actually remember)
If you earn upto around £21,000 Junior will get full fee assistance
If your combined household income is more than £32,000 you will have to pay the "full fee" - it isnt actually the full fee but thats a different story - currently this is £1075.

Depending where (s)he is going to uni there are differing loan amounts.

All students receive 75% of the loan (the non income assessed part)
away from home and inside london this would be £3,071
The remaing 25% is means assessed, but I dont have the exact figures to hand. There are some calculators on that site.

Hope this helps, if it confuses come back to me!

Bennifred

God, Savvy_Sue, not more stuff to worry about!! We have just received our form (via school). I must admit to being amazed when the boy handed it over without being asked, and without it being a week outside the deadline :rolleyes:

student100

stuwilky is correct, except the standard fee for the current year is £1150, next year will be £1175. Also £3071 is the "75%" rate for outside of London, it's more inside.

If you choose only to receive the non-income-assessed 75% of the loan, you will by default have to pay the full £1175 or whatever of tuition fees.

For my first year we filled in the full income assessment (takes quite a while, you need to send copies of payslips and all sorts) but it was fairly obvious from my parent's income that I'd only get the minimum loan and have to pay full fees anyway.
For my second year we decided it wasn't worth all the hassle so we went for the non-income-assessed bit only. A lot less paperwork.

I think next year because my brother will also be at uni we could both get a tiny amount extra on our loans, but only if we do the income assessment (twice), so I don't think we're going to bother (at the end of the day you still have to pay the loan back anyway, so you're not gaining an awful lot).

Even if you don't go for the income assessment, you will get 75% of the maximum loan (£3071 or whatever if you're away from home outside London), and you'll pay £1175-ish tuition fees.

Savvy_Sue

Thank you stuwilky found a link to a calculator on the Aim Higher website and once I'd got the decimal point in the right place on my DH's earnings (the chaps do the maths in this house, not me!) it doesn't look too bad. Although why I'm worrying I don't know: DS has been working part-time and isn't the last of the big spenders so he should be in a good place to start with.

And sorry to worry you amghiggs but as I've said before it's in the job description! Also if you're happier filling forms in online it looks as if you can do that from this site which I found from Aim Higher. Well done to your son: mine assures me he's not been given any forms yet, but I do interrogate them all every night and eldest seems to be pretty reliable at telling me things these days.

And student100, it looks as if you've posted after I started typing: that's a very helpful tip about avoiding the hassle of the paperwork if it looks like DS is only going to be getting the minimum anyway. I think we're somewhere between the two this year; next year might be marginal.

I'm just hoping the Educational Maintenance Allowance for post 16s isn't phased out before middle son (and we!) get the benefit of it - which unfortunately isn't until 2006!

pavlovs_dog

sue

dont know if your son already has a job, but if he doesnt, i would recommend he starts looking for one now. so long as he can balance the demands of his a levels and his job, he can be saving a bit of money, gaining experience for his CV etc.

what a lot of people in my year did was go for jobs with big national companies - the typical high st names/supermarkets etc. this worked out quite well, as not only were most of us on a fairly decent wage, but we were also pretty much guaranteed a job when we went off to uni because we could get a transfer within the company. this was much easier than all the hassle i watched friends at uni go through clambering for a job once they arrived in the city, often then being forced to settle for something crummy/crap hours/crap money because all the good jobs had gone already.


employers seem to view being able to hold down a job whilst studying as evidence of good time management etc. whilst it is not essential, it definately does give you a boost, makes you take on responsibilty, and lessons the financial burden.

on average, i work between 10-15 hours a week, spread over three days. im earning decent money - so much so that im lucky enough to have hardly touched my student loan. im not saying this will be the same for everyone, but if it can help you stay off the credit cards and the overdraft, well that can only be a good thing

Savvy_Sue

thank you pavlovs dog. My eldest currently works for the local cinema which is small and friendly, but only part of a very small chain around the south, so no use for his uni choices. It is a really cushy number for a 17 year old: there is occasionally stock to move, but while the films are on he can sit and read or do his homework, and of course there are the free film tickets! I did suggest that he should apply to universities near other branches of 'his' cinema, but I think that would have limited him to our 'home' university!

But his first choice uni has an arts centre which includes a theatre etc, and I have suggested he writes to them before he arrives asking if they employ students (which my cousin assures me they do!), and saying he already has front of house experience. And then he should go and see them (in his smart shirt and trousers rather than his jog pants and sweat shirt) and say "Hello, I wrote to you, any jobs?" He looks at me as if I am insane, because he cannot see that selling popcorn and making coffee is 'front of house' experience.

If the next boy doesn't follow the eldest into the cinema job, I shall suggest he applies to the national chains, as you suggest!