Household income for Student loan query

catpat

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Also looking into this I discover that students of families with a household income between £40 & £45,000 will have the largest student debts. Why?

Surely the student loan part should be equitable, with variations only on Grants/Bursaries/Scholarships.

I have noticed this too and thought it was quite odd, since surely they should not be paying back more than those from families with higher incomes. But I think it is a maximum of £1000 more each year, which part of a student loan is probably not much. And since it isn't parents paying it back, then perhaps less important what they make once graduated.

Even if it meant paying back more, I would have liked to have borrowed more, but que sera sera.

Indie_Kid

catpat wrote: »

I have noticed this too and thought it was quite odd, since surely they should not be paying back more than those from families with higher incomes.

Those with families who have higher incomes are entitled to less loan.

Mrs_Arcanum

Indie_Kid wrote: »

Those with families who have higher incomes are entitled to less loan.

It just strikes me as unfair to saddle a graduate with a loan, the size of which is based solely on their parents income. Based on course taken I could more readily understand, but parents income?

It is not the parents who will pay it back after all. Therefore the loan part should be the same for ALL students with variations in Grant.

Prothet_of_Doom

Back in the days before Student Loans, my parents made sure that I had the exact same amount as someone on a full grant, no a penny, less, not a penny more. They paid me this in 10 monthly installments, so that in the summer I had no money coming in.

If your joint incomes were below £25K what would your child get in grant and loans ? Make sure your child has this amount. IIRC the loan goes down by 1/2 of the amount of the grant which is a shade under £3K. That way it's all fair, with the poor kids.

j-josie

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

Back in the days before Student Loans, my parents made sure that I had the exact same amount as someone on a full grant, no a penny, less, not a penny more. They paid me this in 10 monthly installments, so that in the summer I had no money coming in.

If your joint incomes were below £25K what would your child get in grant and loans ? Make sure your child has this amount. IIRC the loan goes down by 1/2 of the amount of the grant which is a shade under £3K. That way it's all fair, with the poor kids.

This is what I have done with both our children. As DH was out of work when DD went to uni, our monthly contrib to her was less than what we currently pay to DS but we based our contrib each time by using the method above. We reckoned that the full grant to lowest family income person must roughly equal what a student is supposed to manage on, so we needed to make sure their income matched that figure.

Mrs_Arcanum

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

Back in the days before Student Loans, my parents made sure that I had the exact same amount as someone on a full grant, no a penny, less, not a penny more. They paid me this in 10 monthly installments, so that in the summer I had no money coming in.

If your joint incomes were below £25K what would your child get in grant and loans ? Make sure your child has this amount. IIRC the loan goes down by 1/2 of the amount of the grant which is a shade under £3K. That way it's all fair, with the poor kids.

Unfortunately the difference is beyond what we could consider helping her with. This is how much the difference is.

Income.......Loan......Bursary...Total
<£25,000.. £3,862... £3,387 ...£7,249
£30,000.... £4,335... £2,441 ...£6,776
£35,000.... £4,808... £1494 ....£6,302
£40,000.... £5,282... £547 ......£5,829
<£42,620.. £5,530... £50 .......£5,580
£45,000.... £5,343... £0 .........£5,343

Flugelhorn

I have just been looking a the online calculator http://www.studentfinance.direct.gov.uk/portal/page?_pageid=153%2C4680136&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL - they only seem to be interested in income not how many people there are in the family etc etc.

jackieblack

The part that parents fill in does ask for details of dependents. If this makes no difference, why would they ask?

Mrs_Arcanum

Flugelhorn wrote: »

I have just been looking a the online calculator http://www.studentfinance.direct.gov.uk/portal/page?_pageid=153%2C4680136&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL - they only seem to be interested in income not how many people there are in the family etc etc.

If it cut off at the same point as CB it might make sense then siblings would be included in the calculations.

jackieblack wrote: »

The part that parents fill in does ask for details of dependents. If this makes no difference, why would they ask?

Does seem bizarre.

If our income as a family has dropped by 15% in the last year we can use this years figures for loan purposes.

Helix

jackieblack wrote: »

The part that parents fill in does ask for details of dependents. If this makes no difference, why would they ask?

They do (or used to in the pre 2012 loans not sure if its still the case for post 2012) take a small amount off the income for each dependent. Its only around £1200, something like that its not a lot.