Parental support worries

TheGardener

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I never said they were, I said they were for children from poor families.

It was more the suggestion that poorer kids "do quite well financially" I found irksome. Its a financial system where the poorest have to borrow the most and (because of interest) end up paying back the most. A poor students degree will cost more than a well off students degree.

Given that the OP says the problem is caused by living life to the full...it looks like the next generation in his family isn't going to learn much in the way of financial responsibility by parental example....

Andypandyboy

TheGardener wrote: »

It was more the suggestion that poorer kids "do quite well financially" I found irksome. Its a financial system where the poorest have to borrow the most and (because of interest) end up paying back the most. A poor students degree will cost more than a well off students degree.

Given that the OP says the problem is caused by living life to the full...it looks like the next generation in his family isn't going to learn much in the way of financial responsibility by parental example....

Up until this year that wasn't the case, poorer students had a non repayable element added to their loans. In fact, those who had it last year still get it this year and possibly for the remainder of the course, although I would have to check that.

TheGardener

I understand those already in receipt of the maintenance grant will continue to get it - but the OP's child - nor anyone else's 17 yo - will get it in future. They just get to borrow more instead.

I am no fan of the HE finance structure myself nor the effective retrospective hike in interest - but as you say, that's how it is and we all have to get on with it

missbiggles1

TheGardener wrote: »

It was more the suggestion that poorer kids "do quite well financially" I found irksome. Its a financial system where the poorest have to borrow the most and (because of interest) end up paying back the most. A poor students degree will cost more than a well off students degree.

Given that the OP says the problem is caused by living life to the full...it looks like the next generation in his family isn't going to learn much in the way of financial responsibility by parental example....

That doesn't follow in any way. What the degree costs will depend on what the graduate earns and how quickly (if ever) the loan is repaid.

mumps

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Lots of students on nursing courses do bank work - not only for the money but to benefit their CVs. In fact, a nursing graduate who hasn't done this is going to be in a far worse situation when applying for employment than one who has.

Midwifery is even harder to fit a job round. If they are with a woman in labour they are "expected" to stay for the birth even if their shift has finished. If they are on a community placement they may be on call at night. It is really difficult. I suppose this might just be my local university but was definitely expected locally.

It isn't easy for nursing students to earn much. They have short holidays so can't do full time work for several weeks in the summer. I used to employ several in my last job and their earnings were low over the year compared to other students who had much more time. They generally didn't want work when they were on placements as they were working 40 hrs plus on the ward and still having essays to do or revision for exams.

I don't agree with your final point, one of my kids is a nurse and didn't do any bank work during their degree, got a first and their old placements were falling over themselves to offer employment.

missbiggles1

mumps wrote: »

Midwifery is even harder to fit a job round. If they are with a woman in labour they are "expected" to stay for the birth even if their shift has finished. If they are on a community placement they may be on call at night. It is really difficult. I suppose this might just be my local university but was definitely expected locally.

It isn't easy for nursing students to earn much. They have short holidays so can't do full time work for several weeks in the summer. I used to employ several in my last job and their earnings were low over the year compared to other students who had much more time. They generally didn't want work when they were on placements as they were working 40 hrs plus on the ward and still having essays to do or revision for exams.

I don't agree with your final point, one of my kids is a nurse and didn't do any bank work during their degree, got a first and their old placements were falling over themselves to offer employment.

There are always exceptions - I was talking more generally than one single individual.

To add, the NHS encourages this and has specific facilities for student bank nurses, including access to paid holidays, training and the NHS pension scheme. It's a situation that's beneficial to all round.

http://www.nhsprofessionals.nhs.uk/flexible/Pages/student-nurses.aspx

j-josie

To the original poster: we have been in your situation and have supported 2 children through uni whilst being cash poor despite good incomes (not in your league though!)

However, my approach was not that my contribution was offering 'help' to my child....it was my duty to 'make good' the reduction to his/her loan made by Student England on account of our household income. That was not their fault and I used the maximum loan/grant amount available per the website calculator as an indicator of what a student should expect to live on.

Whatever the difference was, that was what we needed to give them to put them on par with a student from a low income family. And to be honest, as other posters said, that is not enough to cover accommodation and living costs so she/he got top ups at times and they both worked ( one in a pub and one as a carer - he was on a nursing course)
They both received different amounts of support as our circumstances were different each time...DD got more student loan as my husband was out of work at that time.

Could we afford it? Not really, but their low student loans were directly caused by our income so we saw it as something we needed to accept responsibility for. And we did - you have to become smart with money - Aldi and Lidl with just a little Waitrose thrown in; Groupon deals for treats. No holidays apart from visits to the students in their university towns ;-)
Yes, we incurred debt ( overdraft, credit card as and when) but we don't regret it and we dealt with that after they graduated. That debt is a problem caused by ourselves not managing money better before they went to uni so we don't see it as is getting into debt for them. We did it to ourselves!

They have both finished uni and are now working; are fully appreciative of the help they got and we are so very proud of the fine young people they are making their way in the world.
And now, we get to be treated by them every so often. All is good :-)

So, my advice is, just knuckle down and do a strict reappraisal of finances to make room for her 'support' payments. It's 3 years, less than that really. You can do it!

mumps

missbiggles1 wrote: »

There are always exceptions - I was talking more generally than one single individual.

To add, the NHS encourages this and has specific facilities for student bank nurses, including access to paid holidays, training and the NHS pension scheme. It's a situation that's beneficial to all round.

http://www.nhsprofessionals.nhs.uk/flexible/Pages/student-nurses.aspx

But the reality is that is much harder for them to work enough hours if their parents won't contribute. Just look at the difference in holidays for a start. Is it really beneficial to do a 40 hr placement plus uni work and then try to work some paid shifts? I think it terrible that they are losing the bursaries, maybe they should start getting NMW for time on placements.

missbiggles1

mumps wrote: »

But the reality is that is much harder for them to work enough hours if their parents won't contribute. Just look at the difference in holidays for a start. Is it really beneficial to do a 40 hr placement plus uni work and then try to work some paid shifts? I think it terrible that they are losing the bursaries, maybe they should start getting NMW for time on placements.

I agree that it's a shame that the bursary's gone. However, the advantage of bank work is that you do it to suit your other commitments so you don't have to do it as the same time as you're on placement if you can't cope.

I have to say though, most of my clients were mature students (many were lone parents as well) and they coped with being on placement, university work and bringing up young children all at the same time so it should be perfectly possible for the average 18/19/20 year old to do the odd bank shift, even if it does mean giving up a couple of evenings in the bar.

mumps

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I agree that it's a shame that the bursary's gone. However, the advantage of bank work is that you do it to suit your other commitments so you don't have to do it as the same time as you're on placement if you can't cope.

I have to say though, most of my clients were mature students (many were lone parents as well) and they coped with being on placement, university work and bringing up young children all at the same time so it should be perfectly possible for the average 18/19/20 year old to do the odd bank shift, even if it does mean giving up a couple of evenings in the bar.

I employed a lot of student nurses over the years, they tended to prefer it to bank work as I could plan shifts with them well in advance. They all went straight into employment without working on bank by the way.

The amount your students would have needed to supplement their bursary will be very different to the OPs daughter. The support for single parent student nurses was excellent. I know of student nurses who were worse off financially when they qualified as they were getting such good support while studying so I can't imagine many of them did lots of shifts.

If the OPs daughter doesn't get enough loan to cover her rent, quite possible on her parents earnings, how many hours do you reckon she would need to supplement her income?