Do you pay rent if you live at home?

mintymoneysaver

Purely out of interest, if you are a Uni student living at home, or a parent of one, do you pay rent to your parents?

My daughter went to Uni last year and lived away but for a variety of reasons she came home in November and has spent this yearworking part time, doing work experience and reapplying. I haven't taken any rent off her as she's had very little ( she had to pay back £500 to the SLC for the overpayment of her grant and wanted to pay it back as quick as she could)

So next year she is going to a local Uni and wants to live at home. She will get a full grant and loan as I earn below £25,000 and will also get a £500 bursary.

I am just interested as to whether students who live at home pay rent? Her friends who live at home don't, but they just get a full loan as their parents earn more.

What do you/ your children do?

CoolHotCold

Theres a few ways you can approach it, but my opinion is that, under the SLC/SAAS guidelines parents are expected to pay a portion of any available loans for the child, which is why (speaking from a Scottish standpoint) the loans & bursary are on a sliding scale, the parent is expected to financially contribute towards the student.


But I'm rather biased being a mature student, I probably come down more on the "give students all the money possible" side. I know a friend who lived at home and got a full loan/bursary and paid rent, his parents kept the money in a savings account and at the end of the course his parents surprised him with the money. I suppose it's helpful to keep it safe as firstly Students are not always the most reliable people to keep to a budget and also it puts it aside for any rainy days.

Lokolo

There are a number of ways to look at.

- You could not charge rent and encourage your DD to save money.
- You could not charge rent and let her spend it all on alcohol and boys.
- You could charge her rent because you need the support.
- You could charge her rent and save it for the future because you know she is useless and won't save it herself.

I'm sure there are more but that's the main ones although this was after university, when I went home I was number 1 (I didn't need any encouragement though), my brother is currently living at home and is number 4.

katie1812

When I was at uni, my mum didn't make me pay rent. Her reasons were always whilst I was in full time education, then she wouldn't 'charge' me rent. This was also the case for a few of my friends too.

CharlieRabbit01

a friend of mine lived at home her parents charged her reduced rent.

when she graduated and was looking to move in with her OH her parents gave her the money she had paid in rent plus interest (they had put it in a savings account).

My friend didnt know they were going to do this so had also saved up money herself.

StacFace

The rule my parents have is that you live at home for free until the September after you turn 18, then it's £20 per week rent. The idea behind it was that once you are an adult you should pay your own way, so if you choose to stay at home then you should pay 'rent' to cover your share of the food and bills.

With Student Finance loans are based on household income and where a student is awarded a lower amount it is because the parents are expected to 'top up' to the full amount. Therefore I would think of the friends living rent free as paying that 'top up' amount in rent. Since your daugher is getting the full amount I think it would be perfectly reasonable to charge a small amount per week.

gupalsmurthpadacal

I paid rent when living at home, if I was working I paid £250 a month and whilst at uni I paid £150 a month.

Dunroamin

Do you actually mean rent or do you mean paying for her keep?

I think paying rent is optional but paying for food and utilities isn't, otherwise the whole grant/loan just becomes spending money.

McKneff

I don't think yu should charge rent as such, but should be asking for an amount to cover food and utilities, only fair really and it teaches her to be responsible for herself. There is absolutely no reason that she should not pay for her own food.

mintymoneysaver

Yes, I meant paying for her keep. Mixed views so far then!

Dunroamin

mintymoneysaver wrote: »

Yes, I meant paying for her keep. Mixed views so far then!

Not very mixed!