Student Accommodation payments

Vizla

Hi
I'm new to this so not sure if this is the right place to post this thread but hoping so.
We have two children who have started university this year. Their student loans do not cover the accommodation costs and so we have opted to pay their rental and they can then use their loan to live off.
However like many people we don't actually have the funds in the bank to pay and are currently having to put the payments on a credit card and pay as much as we can afford off each month.
So my questions are:
Is there anyone else in this position and how do they manage?
We are considering transferring the payment to an interest free card but as the rental is paid in three quarterly instalments, is this the right thing to do? If it is when is the right time to do it etc?
Our children are looking for jobs to help boost their loans and if they do get a job it may be that we have to ask them to contribute but I doubt they'll earn enough to be able to do so.
My husband works full time and I work part time. We have a mortgage and no other debt and most months there is very little left over and certainly not enough to fund two students rentals amounting to around £7,000 in total!!
Any advice would be appreciated in how we can manage this in the long term.

mgdavid

it would help if you could give the figures - how much is the accomodation cost and how much student loan do they receive?

PeacefulWaters

The starting point for me would be that the student pays accommodation out of their loan and the parent only tops up any shortfall when absolutely needed.

How much is the maintenance loan?
How much is the accommodation? (£3,500?)
What else is being spent?

Food, study materials, travel, entertainment are the other costs. It's not unreasonable to expect part time work from the student to help.

It is unrealistic for you to rack up £7k of debt each year when you say you can't afford to.

So either the student needs to be more viable with their income and expenditure or you're going to have to cut back big time at home.

Vizla

Ok so I have reviewed the accommodation payments and scared myself even more!. Each accommodation is actually just over £5,200 per year (£10,400).

Their maintenance loan amounts, I don't have the exact figures but they both got less than £5,000 each. So their loans don't cover the cost of the accommodation and even if they did pay the accommodation they would have no money to purchase food etc.

They both applied for a local bursary. One each of £500 which has helped with the cost of supplies required for the courses. They don't appear to go out partying that often and are extremely careful with their money as it is. Neither accepted the overdraft facility when they applied for their student bank accounts.

So even if they paid their own accommodation fees and we had to top up the reminder we would still need to find money to send to them to pay for food etc.

xylophone

You indicate that your children are sensible with money.

I believe that the overdraft on a student bank account is free? Perhaps each of them could use their loans plus the overdraft to finance their accommodation costs and living costs while you and your spouse save as much as possible into interest paying current accounts - at the end of the courses, you could use the money saved to enable your children to repay the free overdrafts?

PeacefulWaters

Vizla wrote: »

Ok so I have reviewed the accommodation payments and scared myself even more!. Each accommodation is actually just over £5,200 per year (£10,400).

Their maintenance loan amounts, I don't have the exact figures but they both got less than £5,000 each. So their loans don't cover the cost of the accommodation and even if they did pay the accommodation they would have no money to purchase food etc.

They both applied for a local bursary. One each of £500 which has helped with the cost of supplies required for the courses. They don't appear to go out partying that often and are extremely careful with their money as it is. Neither accepted the overdraft facility when they applied for their student bank accounts.

So even if they paid their own accommodation fees and we had to top up the reminder we would still need to find money to send to them to pay for food etc.

Ok, they have an income that pays accommodation and nothing else.

What else do they need?

Food £20 a week each seems adequate to me.
Course materials
Transport
Clothes

How can you fund this? You were paying for most of these things previously. Are you actually any worse off?

Lokolo

They have around £500 a month to live off from their loans, but do they actually need all of it?

Out of that I suspect they could live off half, so why don't they pay you half of their student loans, that way you only need to find the spare £5000 odd over the year for both in order to cover their accomondation. They could also get part time jobs, and then work even more so in the summer (I realise you said they are looking, but student jobs are usually quite easy to come by, especially at Christmas!).

jennifernil

Accommodation is presumably inclusive so no bills to pay.

They appear to have about enough to cover that so food, books etc and travel left.

As said, food need not be that expensive. £5 per day should be more than enough for surviving, it's not up to the parents to pay for partying and luxuries. That should cover shower gel, toothpaste etc too.

Books etc is variable, good use can be made of libraries.

Travel.......have they far to travel on a daily basis? Many student properties are within walking distance of the campus.

Clothes.......surely they already have clothes? New essentials could be Christmas and birthday gifts.

Parents will be making savings on all bills now the household is smaller, so this should help cover their contribution.

Students should be taking the free overdraft money if necessary, rather than expecting parents to subsidise first, getting some hours of work to cover the extras, and realising that they are now "poor students" who have to learn to live within their means!

A weekend job should easily earn them £50-100.

Why did you agree to cover this large amount if you feel you cannot afford it? Far better to send them a monthly amount rather than you getting into debt with large up front payments. It will also help them budget more easily if they have a regular monthly amount.

sheramber

Would it not be better to pay for the accommodation with their loans and top up and them a monthly amount for food etc.

That way you would only be paying out an amount monthly, rather than a lump sum over a longer period.

Since you are no longer supporting them at home you should have that money to give them.

Do they come home often enough for you to give them supplies to take back? My son came home at the weekend every two or three weeks and I saved the extra portion of two for one offers for him to take back. Also extra tins etc. By buying them each week I didn't notice it on the housekeeping as I wasn't feeding him at home,

Luckystar

I agree with the advice about using the student overdraft available on their student bank accounts which is interest free. Did neither of them work over the summer to try and have some money behind them when they started uni? I know it's probably no help now but it would have been better for them to have looked into living costs and loan entitlement before they accepted their places and started uni to see that if was a feasible option for them. That way they could have thought about the option of going to a commutable uni (if there are any nearby) and lived at home

Vizla

Thank you all for your responses.
The courses they are doing are not available in our area and like most parents we are trying to give them opportunities we didn't have. When they accepted their places we did discuss the financial side of things. They had managed to save up some money and we said we'd help as best we could without breaking our bank but we've had unexpected expenses (car problems, vets bill and house repairs).
They are going to put together their monthly spending for us to review and we'll take things from.
However jobs whether for students or not don't appear that easy to get. They have their CV's in as many places as possible but so far nothing.
As for using the overdraft facility we can't see how that teaches them not to get into debt in the future. But maybe that's because we don't use one.
We'll get there. It's been a learning curve all round and we appreciate the comments.