Advice required re.student daughter's allowance

Pollycat

Dolce75 wrote: »

Basically, my husband took out 2 trust fund policies for his daughter 17 years ago. The first of these has matured, but the amount in it has been concealed from us, by - let's just say, a most unpleasant ex wife. Working out our sums, we realise there will be at least £10,000 in this account, but that's the extreme least, and calculated without taking into consideration the interest accumulated.

Unanswered questions......

CH27 wrote: »

How was the trust set up?
What names are on it?
Who has access to it?

OP?

TBH, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this money has been spent and that's why the daughter is 'withholding all financial information'.

Dolce75 wrote: »

My husband's ex wife is using this to highlight my husband as a 'bad father' because he is less than willing to just hand over cash blindly, under these circumstances.

The daughter is an adult.
I would hope that she has enough sense to realise that her Dad has given her a pretty good start in life, especially as the OP says he has always paid maintenance.

rpc

Dolce75 wrote: »

However, we discover that she has withheld all financial information, possibly having been instructed to do so by her mother. (Much bitterness there). So, despite repeated attempts, we are no further on in understanding her incoming/outgoing financial condition.

Your husband made provision some time ago.

I would tell her that you are open to discussing more help, but that needs to be a dialogue and it needs to be transparent. If that dialogue isn't there, then neither should your money be.

onlyroz

Mojisola wrote: »

She has the right to spend it and then has the right to struggle financially while at uni.

She doesn't have the right to expect Dad to pay her an allowance because she spent her lump sum!

Well of course, I'm not disagreeing. I was just trying to convey that whatever daddy intended the money for has no bearing on what it might actually end up being spent on. That's one of the reasons why I have never made use of the trust funds for my own kids - if I want to save up for their university costs then I'll do it myself because there's no guarantee that any money I carefully set aside in their name will end up being spent on what I want it to be spent on.

rpc

Homeownertobe wrote: »

It's worth noting that 17 years ago top up fees didn't exist, nor did student loans so daddy wanted the money to be for a house deposit and not for university. But now it's convenient it seems it's for university. Funny that.

17 years ago, the changes were known about. If you started uni 17 years ago, you got a small (very small) grant, paid no fees and could get a loan.

16 years ago, tuition fees were brought in across the UK, grants were scrapped and loans were enlarged. This was known about ~2 years in advance.

tea_lover

Homeownertobe wrote: »

It's worth noting that 17 years ago top up fees didn't exist, nor did student loans so daddy wanted the money to be for a house deposit and not for university. But now it's convenient it seems it's for university. Funny that.

I started uni 17 years ago (1997 - how old do I feel now??) and fees and loans both existed.

schwam66

just curious how much was paid into the trust fund.....me and my wife are doing the same not a genuine trust fund but just putting the child tax credit check we get into a ban account for our two children just curious how muh your husband/other half was putting in .....i agree with another poster i would either keep giving the trust fund amount or nothing at all if her food and housing are coverd that should be more than enough, it would be up to her to take down a part tim job if she wants beer money or anything else....all the best and goodluck

JReacher1

tea_lover wrote: »

I started uni 17 years ago (1997 - how old do I feel now??) and fees and loans both existed.

Fees didn't exists in 1997. I went to uni in 1997 and there were no fees, and loans were the bare minimum (£1800 a year). It was 1998 that fees started appearing.

onlyroz

JReacher1 wrote: »

Fees didn't exists in 1997. I went to uni in 1997 and there were no fees, and loans were the bare minimum (£1800 a year). It was 1998 that fees started appearing.

And guess which year I started uni?

Dolce75

Pollycat wrote: »

Unanswered questions......


OP?

TBH, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this money has been spent and that's why the daughter is 'withholding all financial information'.



The daughter is an adult.
I would hope that she has enough sense to realise that her Dad has given her a pretty good start in life, especially as the OP says he has always paid maintenance.

Pollycat, tbh she is a sensible young lady and I believe the money is still in an account and in full. I feel that her mother has most likely reinvested it further, which is also, a sensible financial decision in many ways. However, this will have been done without discussion or joint consent from my husband who has faithfully been paying this policy for many years for the agreed purpose of covering uni. I suspect the reason for the elusiveness re.the amount of cash is because the mother has instructed it be concealed. Far too long and personal to detail here, but we are dealing with a highly controlling individual.
My husband has been paying the monthly amounts for the 2 policies directly to his wife in one monthly transaction and full child maintenance fees via a separate monthly transaction. Yes, a certain amount of (now questionable) trust has been involved here, but we've no reason to believe that this money has been used or 'blown' in any way.

Mojisola

Dolce75 wrote: »

Far too long and personal to detail here, but we are dealing with a highly controlling individual.
My husband has been paying the monthly amounts for the 2 policies directly to his wife in one monthly transaction and full child maintenance fees via a separate monthly transaction.

Now his daughter is an adult, you don't have to have any more contact with the mother.

If his daughter wants a relationship with (and money from) her father, she needs to behave like an adult and talk to him and spend time with him.