Student Loans

Pixie5740

Your daughter can use her Nationwide account throughout university...I did.

Student accounts offer interest free overdrafts, some offer up to £3k but of course once your daughter graduates she'll need to start repaying it.

Some banks offer freebies like insurance, discounts from certain retailers when you open up a student account.

restless6

my son had a normal natwest account, but when he recived his student loan into it, the bank changed it to a student account.

peaceandfreedom

EDITED because I'm behind the times with the info below - grants have been scrapped.

[STRIKE]Kim1961 - it's also worth remembering that depending on how low your income is, your daughter may get a grant as well as the loan. The grant does not have to be paid back and can be quite a substantial amount (2K+ per year). [/STRIKE]Students in receipt of grants may also be eligible for a bursary from the university - this varies a lot from uni to uni but also does not have to paid back. When your daughter applies for student finance, make sure she ticks the box that says they can share her info with the uni - that way, the university knows who is eligible for a low-income bursary.

EDIT: It may be still possible to get a bursary from the university?

As others have said, the student accommodation loan is not actually all that much - when my daughter goes to uni in September, the loan will not actually be enough to pay her accommodation. Our household income is too high for anything other than the minimum loan, though, even though it is not really all that high. I will have to find around £250 per month for my daughter's food and other expenses :cool:. Though she does plan to get a job.

If your daughter is eligible for the full loan [STRIKE]and grant[/STRIKE], she should absolutely take it . When it comes to paying it back, it is just a percentage of her income above the threshold, she will hardly notice it.

restless6

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Kim1961 - it's also worth remembering that depending on how low your income is, your daughter may get a grant as well as the loan. The grant does not have to be paid back and can be quite a substantial amount (2K+ per year). Students in receipt of grants may also be eligible for a bursary from the university - this varies a lot from uni to uni but also does not have to paid back. When your daughter applies for student finance, make sure she ticks the box that says they can share her info with the uni - that way, the university knows who is eligible for a low-income bursary.

As others have said, the student accommodation loan is not actually all that much - when my daughter goes to uni in September, the loan will not actually be enough to pay her accommodation. Our household income is too high for anything other than the minimum loan, though, even though it is not really all that high. I will have to find around £250 per month for my daughter's food and other expenses :cool:. Though she does plan to get a job.

If your daughter is eligible for the full loan and grant, she should absolutely take it . When it comes to paying it back, it is just a percentage of her income above the threshold, she will hardly notice it.

The grants have been axed from this year . It was one of the budget cuts. It is now an extra loan instead.

peaceandfreedom

restless6 wrote: »

The grants have been axed from this year . It was one of the budget cuts. It is now an extra loan instead.

Oh dear, didn't know that. Apologies for the misinformation, have edited my original post .

white101

Hi, Just joined the forum after many years of following MSE and Martin.


A quickish word on my experience with student loans.


My daughter started uni in September last year, initially she was awarded a loan for the £9k for her course and £5442 for her accommodation. I was made redundant a month before she went to uni and so I contacted SFE to let them know my income had at that time become, and still remains zero.
As I had been compensated for my redundancy by my previous employer of 14 years, the SFE took into consideration this money as income and added it to my salary to date (as previously declared) thus taking my daughter above a threshold level. They then reduced her loan for accommodation by £1800. I have to provide this shortfall from my compensation.
At the end of 2014 a committee of MP's decided that redundancy payments would be taken into consideration when calculating student loans, the HMRC do not take the first £30k as income but SFE are allowed to following this committee decision.


This is much like the decision Martin has recently campaigned against, one taken behind closed doors in a committee not open to a vote from MP's across the house.


I am fortunate enough to be able to cover this shortfall from my compensation, but quite frankly it should be covering my own bills until I am able to secure a new job.


If I earn any money between now and April this will be added to my compensation and salary earned last year, this would 'probably reduce her loan further' according to SFE thus putting more pressure on me to support her.


University is becoming once again the preserve of the wealthy

[Deleted User]

Good lord what a lot of fabulous info. And sad info too. Thank you all so very much. I am really really glad i have this forum to come to.