Can someone help please? :( VERY long post.

zzzLazyDaisy

OP, sorry if I am telling you something you already know, but when your child is continuing their education at Uni, they remain a dependent until September (I think it is 1st Monday in Sept) and you continue to get child benefit/tax credits/whatever other benefits you were getting until then.

Is she going away to Uni, or will she still be living at home? If she is going away, personally I wouldn't get into too much of a tizz about it. I certainly wouldn't broach what will happen next summer hols after she has completed her first year at uni.... that is a whole lifetime away!

If she is going away to uni she will have such a fast growing up curve, that by next summer hols her opinions and values will probably have changed a lot. She will also be mixing with other students many of whom will be working and making plans to travel etc.

There is no point in locking horns unnecessarily. The time to explain the facts of life about living at home during the summer vacation is next year, when she broaches the subject of coming home for the holidays.

EDIT - students can't sign on during the vacations if they are still on a continuing course of study (ie they can only sign on if the course has ended or if they leave the course).

Elsewhere

Having any sort of job, and being dependable, is an asset character-wise for getting a job once she leaves Uni.

Various of my friend's children have gained good degrees, and didn't have a problem holding down a summer job - though many were just part-time (shop/bar work - fish-and-chip frying - grooming horses at a racing stables!)

devildog

As others have said, it can depend on the course but tbh even then it is not about having to do any work in the summer but how long they get off. One of mine gets nearly 3 months off and does paid work, another gets 6 weeks and uses that time to get unpaid further work experience in their chosen field.

WestonDave

There are other options though. I spent most of my summers working for an outdoor centre on a pretty much voluntary basis (gaining experience and getting to enjoy the activities) - we got paid a token amount each week but accomodation and board etc were covered by the centre as it was a long way from home. If she doesn't want to spend the summer stacking shelves something like that (does CampAmerica still exist) might mean she can have some fun without being a drain on your finances.

As for Uni work in the summer - er, not that I can recall - I seem to remember coming home, going straight into a couple of weeks paid work that I got with the council via a contact (made a few hundred quid that way) before spending the rest of the summer outdoors apart from a couple of weeks in September that were largely spent catching up on sleep!

tea_lover

I can't think of anyone who didn't work full-time through the summer when I was at uni. She might have a bit of work but not much, certainly not 4 months' worth! The first year is just about passing anyway, you pretty much start again in the second year.

From my experience, the majority of students will work p/t throughout the year, then f/t during the summer. How else do you afford essentials like food??

Lou67

Thanks again folks, for confirming what I thought! LOL. Not sure when to have the conversation with her though... maybe it is best left til closer to the time, and maybe it won't be necessary as she should hopefully have grown up by then.

Thanks Daisy for the confirmation re; jobseekers.

Lou67

tea_lover wrote: »

I can't think of anyone who didn't work full-time through the summer when I was at uni. She might have a bit of work but not much, certainly not 4 months' worth! The first year is just about passing anyway, you pretty much start again in the second year.

From my experience, the majority of students will work p/t throughout the year, then f/t during the summer. How else do you afford essentials like food??

She seems to be under the impression that her maintenance grant is going to cover EVERYthing and she has no intention of working part time at uni either... I think she is in for a nasty shock over the coming year

claire16c

She'll find out in a years time she won't have uni work to do over the summer so don't panic about telling her that now. I don't know anyone who ever did much - if anything, for uni in the summer!

Everyone I know worked and admittedly most spent a chunk of that on a holiday somewhere but I do not know 1 person who spent their whole uni summer doing uni work! The subjects you do tend to change each year, along with some changes in lecturers etc.

The only person I knew who did a bit of work was my friend on a physio course but that was more working in a hospital rather than studying at home & she still had a break of about 6 weeks.

Wellyboots6

I think my student loan (10 years ago) covered my accommodation and tuition fees and so food, clothes, books etc all had to come out of my wages. I got the full amount of loan too.

LannieDuck

What does she plan to do after uni? She may find she needs to start getting relevant work experience during her summer holidays.