Advice required re.student daughter's allowance

peachyprice

Dolce75 wrote: »

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.

Under the terms of the divorce when did/does maintenance end?

RAS

SO

OH needs to tell DD that he has been paying into a trust fund for 17 year and has no idea how much has actually been saved on her behalf. And that this was done with the intention of helping her when she went to university.

Also tell her that it is entirely up to her whether she uses that money to support herself at university.

He is however now on a pension and much lower income so cannot provide further.

Pollycat

RAS wrote: »

SO

OH needs to tell DD that he has been paying into a trust fund for 17 year and has no idea how much has actually been saved on her behalf. And that this was done with the intention of helping her when she went to university.

Also tell her that it is entirely up to her whether she uses that money to support herself at university.

He is however now on a pension and much lower income so cannot provide further.

Succinctly put, RAS.

Dolce75

lazer wrote: »

When I am employing people, I would rather someone with a 2:1 and that worked during uni than someone with a first that didn't.
No amount of qualifications and education can replace a work ethic.


Reaching 21 and never having worked a day in their life does not bode well for the future IMO.


AS for giving her pocket money - there is no need to, she has the trust fund, and its now up to her to choose how to use it.


Your financial situation has changed dramatically with your husband taking early retirement, so your probably have a lot less money to spare, and cannot afford to pay your daughters luxuries at Uni (as the student loan and the trust fund will pay for essentials.)
If you can afford it, continue to save for daughter a bit so you can help contribute to house deposit or wedding or whatever in later years. But do not save for this if it means you going without small luxuries which you deserve in your retirement

This is a most helpful insight and I appreciate your grasp of my point. As for continuing to assist with wedding/mortgage etc, my husband has been paying into a second policy, as well as the one we are discussing here. It is due to mature in 2.5 years and again has been maintained for 17 years.
These props were put in place to ensure that his daughter would never have to struggle, no matter what my husband's situation may end up being.

Mattygroves2

I'm going to offer a slightly different opinion. It seems to me that her Mum (and new partner) will be supporting her through Uni (by effectively letting her live rent free) and suggest that your partner should do the same although at a level based on his reduced earnings.

So I'd suggest that he should continue paying maintenance at the same level as he has been but to the daughter direct. That is what we did when my two step sons went to uni and we never asked what their Mum was giving them or what they were doing about loans. We also provided them both with cars from the amounts we'd saved over the years for them. However, we could afford that although my OHs pension contributions were reduced for the 5 years it took for them both to finish plus the next year when we helped to fund their travelling.

Neither of them worked in term time but one of them did do some work over the summers. Both now in professional jobs doing well and not hampered by not having had part time jobs.

Even without rent she's going to have a lot of expenses and may well decide that after the first year she wants to move out anyway even if she stays at the local uni. If I was in your shoes I'd be trying to persuade her to do this anyway as that is where most of the growing up happens at uni.

Has she got a car yet ? If not then I can see the trust fund going on this and the first year's insurance. Or wouldn't it be better to try and preserve it for a house deposit or even first month's rent and deposit when she finally moves out ?

CH27

Has the maintenance finished now?

Dolce75

Homeownertobe wrote: »

But if you were paying into this fund up until last year then surely you know how much is in it?

Yes, we know there is at least £10k in it. That is not taking into consideration the interest which will have been accrued. No, we weren't paying it directly in to the account, as the frosty consequence of the divorce meant that the ex refused to hand any bank account control to my husband, so in order to continue making provision for his daughter, my husband has paid the monthly amount to his ex's account (separately from child maintenance). We have NO doubt that the money has been placed where it should have been, as despite all things, the ex wants her daughter's best too.

Dolce75

peachyprice wrote: »

Under the terms of the divorce when did/does maintenance end?

It ended following the completion of full time secondary education.

Pollycat

Dolce75 wrote: »

Yes, we know there is at least £10k in it. That is not taking into consideration the interest which will have been accrued. No, we weren't paying it directly in to the account, as the frosty consequence of the divorce meant that the ex refused to hand any bank account control to my husband, so in order to continue making provision for his daughter, my husband has paid the monthly amount to his ex's account (separately from child maintenance). We have NO doubt that the money has been placed where it should have been, as despite all things, the ex wants her daughter's best too.

If your OH took out the trust fund policies why didn't he pay the money directly into them instead of via his ex-wife?

Dolce75

They took them out together when they were married. She just happened to be the one named on this particular account. Splitting up a short time later, my husband committed to continuing to maintain these. His ex was in agreement as it made good sense for the future of the child.