should i charge my student son "rent"

milkydrink

My daughter left education in June this year. The last year she qualified for the ALG, £30 PW, she never got the EMA.
I still continued to give her pocket money £20 PW, until she started work in July.
So she got £30 EMA, £20 Pocket money & she did a work 1 or 2 days per week for £50 a day & the school holidays.

I think I was a softy........

vyseyboy

Badger_Lady wrote: »

£170 a week plus part-time earnings!?!? And I thought students were supposed to be struggling??

Methinks Badger might go back to Uni and live at home for free; I'll be rich :-D

Unfortunately it's not free money, and they send an invoice for most of it back at the end, as I was recently reminded

Bring back grants!

spence602

hi i am a 2nd year student that lives at home, due to the costs of living away!i work 5 evenings a week monday to friday and earn £95 a week from this, i also get student loan and grant. one thing to remember is that a loan is a loan and needs to be paid back so if you are thinking about charging your kids rent try not to include this into their budget as they may have the cash now but they do have to pay it back!i feel if you can do it get as little as possible of them and try and save as much of it for them when they finish university. i am being charged £20 per week at the minute but my family have no mortgage to pay and i only come home to sleep as i work and am out at uni or with friends for the rest of the time and also pay for all my own food, i have a mobile so dont use the home phone and they use the internet so i am not costing them anything else on that front.i feel really cheated by them but from hearing some things on here i may be quite lucky!anything over £30 a week is ridiculous as you are making them work part time to pay for their rent instead of spending time studying and enjoying their last few years with little responsibility.lol carnt wait to hear what you all think:rotfl:

SkintButTrying_2

I'm inclined to agree with you slightly spence, I live at home, am in my 3rd yr and dont have to pay "rent" but then neither do my parents as they outright own the house.

But its a totally different situation for the orignal post maker so i think £35 is fair enough if he has a job, and 2 loans and a grant!

I have no loans, no grants, no proper job if i had to pay rent aswell id be impoverished! I just about manage to pay my own mobile bill, gym membership and a little beer money from ebay and odd jobs. Im grateful my parents are letting me concentrate 100% on my degree rather than working to pay them rent, and ive got all the time in the world to learn about bills etc when it comes to moving out, admittedly it will be a shock but one bridge at a time...

Idiophreak

spence602 wrote: »

one thing to remember is that a loan is a loan and needs to be paid back so if you are thinking about charging your kids rent try not to include this into their budget as they may have the cash now but they do have to pay it back!

It all rather depends whather you should include this or not...

If they've taken it just in case, stuck it in the bank and will pay it back when the degree's through, then I think you're right - it would be a little irresponsible of a parent to ask them to hand this cash over.

If, on the other hand, they had the loan and spent it on drink, crack, amusingly shaped vegetables etc - then there's no argument...they'll have to pay back the loan in either case...

student_advisor

spence602 wrote: »

one thing to remember is that a loan is a loan and needs to be paid back so if you are thinking about charging your kids rent try not to include this into their budget as they may have the cash now but they do have to pay it back!

The maintenance loan and the grant are meant for course and living costs. If your child(ren) lives with you and can afford to pay something towards keep, they should be encouraged to. This is one area of growing up and being responsible for yourself that students who live at home don't necessarily learn. Learning to manage money and work to a budget is part of the education of university.

You could work out roughly how much it costs you a week to feed, heat & wash etc. them and use that as a basis for rent/board!

vyseyboy

student_advisor wrote: »

The maintenance loan and the grant are meant for course and living costs. If your child(ren) lives with you and can afford to pay something towards keep, they should be encouraged to. This is one area of growing up and being responsible for yourself that students who live at home don't necessarily learn. Learning to manage money and work to a budget is part of the education of university.

You could work out roughly how much it costs you a week to feed, heat & wash etc. them and use that as a basis for rent/board!

The maintenance loan and the grant are much less when you
mention that you are living at home: the loans companies etc. assume minimal / no accomodation costs, but will take into account special circumstances / single parent families etc.

It does depend on the course, too though. Did the OP say her son had 2 days at Uni p/w? A lot of time spent not at uni, and a not-too-intensive course, so perhaps the OP shouldn't feel too guilty for charging her son if he can comfortably fit part time work to meet the costs around study.

I feel cheated that I was in for 5 days a week, and 9-5 for four of them! I'm just a mug for taking the wrong course, I guess.

1234

let ur local council know he's a student you may get a reduction in your council tax.
i spoke to my council as their chasng me for tax which i have not paid, they've requested proof i was a student and then they will discount the tax which is @ 100%

suzey1

vyseyboy wrote: »

It does depend on the course, too though. Did the OP say her son had 2 days at Uni p/w? A lot of time spent not at uni, and a not-too-intensive course, so perhaps the OP shouldn't feel too guilty for charging her son if he can comfortably fit part time work to meet the costs around study.

I did start to feel guilty that i was expecting my son to pay £35.00 towards his board. He is only going to uni 2 days a week and working 20 hrs a week, so he will still have 2 or 3 days off each week to study and leisure!
He will not have to spend any of his loan and will put this into a savings account. With his grant and wages he will have around £160 a week so i think asking for £35.00 a week keep is reasonable.
Thanks for all your advice:beer:

Rikki

My son will have to use all his grants and bursarys to pay for his accomodation.
If he doesn't work he will have no money for anything. My ex will not support him full stop, he says he must work and I am not in a financial position to help him with much. He is going to find it very hard.

It will be difficult for him as he has 20 hours of lectures a week.