Terminally ill brother - Family members in need of advice

Sirlaughalot

Spendless wrote: »

I suspect the issue is they've got the minimum loan due to the original household income but are in the expensive halls of residence, so parents are paying the accommodation costs x2.

As an idea of costs, we looked recently for our son, he will get the min loan of just under £4K. cheapest campus accommodation at where he'd like to go was £6,300.

Yes, this is true. Mom wanted the girls to study hard and was willing to put in many extra hours as a nurse in the next few years, before she herself was due to retire, so that the girls could give 100% to their studies and mom would foot the bill.

Unfortunately for us life has not gone to plan:sad:

But we're nowhere near as bad off as some people`s situation and are grateful for where we are and very thankful of help and support:xmassign:

lika_86

Sirlaughalot wrote: »

Yes, this is true. Mom wanted the girls to study hard and was willing to put in many extra hours as a nurse so that the girls could give 100% to their studies and mom would foot the bills.

Unfortunately for us life does n`t always go to plan:sad:

If they aren't already in the cheapest accommodation there the possibility of enquiring with the university about them switching to cheaper accommodation in the new year? Lots of students drop out in the first term and given the circumstances the university may allow them to switch (assuming it's university accommodation not private).

ETA: This may be helpful, there is the suggestion that student finance can be reassessed - https://www4.ntu.ac.uk/student_services/fees_finance/changes_affecting_finance/household_income_change/index.html

Sirlaughalot

from what the girls have told me they have to stay on campus for the first year

lika_86

Sirlaughalot wrote: »

from what the girls have told me they have to stay on campus for the first year

That may be true but the difference in university accommodation varies massively, some is expensive and fancy with private bathrooms and nice amenities and some is more basic (and accordingly cheaper) but means sharing a bathroom etc. It's an easy way to save money if they could switch down a level.

Tabbytabitha

Sirlaughalot wrote: »

Yes, this is true. Mom wanted the girls to study hard and was willing to put in many extra hours as a nurse in the next few years, before she herself was due to retire, so that the girls could give 100% to their studies and mom would foot the bill.

Unfortunately for us life has not gone to plan:sad:

But we're nowhere near as bad off as some people`s situation and are grateful for where we are and very thankful of help and support:xmassign:

Sirlaughalot wrote: »

My sister in law is a Nurse and has worked incredibly hard for the NHS with over 30 years service. From memory, i cant recall her having any personal sickness time off other than family funerals, pregnancy and looking after her daughters as they were growing up.

Both daughters like their mum are both studying medicine at university. Their intelligence obviously comes from their mothers side of the family:)

Studying Medicine means to be training to be a doctor, not a nurse.

If your nieces are studying Nursing it may well be possible to do shifts at their local hospital's nursing bank which will help them financially now and also look good on their CVs. If they are actually studying Medicine, part time work does become more of a problem.

Spendless

Sirlaughalot wrote: »

Yes, this is true. Mom wanted the girls to study hard and was willing to put in many extra hours as a nurse in the next few years, before she herself was due to retire, so that the girls could give 100% to their studies and mom would foot the bill.

Unfortunately for us life has not gone to plan:sad:

But we're nowhere near as bad off as some people`s situation and are grateful for where we are and very thankful of help and support:xmassign:

When we went to an Open day recently with our DS, there was someone to talk to about financial matters. I'm guessing there would be the same or similar at your Neices respective Unis. I'd suggest they go and talk to someone about their current circumstances and see what support, financial and otherwise is available.

Swapping to a cheaper accommodation may not be easy, because you've signed up to an agreement and you can be liable for the rent if you leave. There's been a couple of threads on the student board on this forum about this recently.

Tabbytabitha

Spendless wrote: »

When we went to an Open day recently with our DS, there was someone to talk to about financial matters. I'm guessing there would be the same or similar at your Neices respective Unis. I'd suggest they go and talk to someone about their current circumstances and see what support, financial and otherwise is available.

Swapping to a cheaper accommodation may not be easy, because you've signed up to an agreement and you can be liable for the rent if you leave. There's been a couple of threads on the student board on this forum about this recently.

It may not be possible this year but worth asking about. If it's university owned accommodation, they may be more likely to allow it on compassionate grounds. Also, it won't be long until students are making arrangements for next year's accommodation and the students need to realise that money is tight and they have to take that into account when making their plans.

MothballsWallet wrote: »

We wouldn't have modern computers without Dr Alan Turing - most modern computers are built on the Turing Machine architecture that he came up with.

Savvy_Sue

While the idea of the nieces looking for work sounds good in principle, I'm not sure now is the time and I'd first take up the suggestions of getting their loan re-assessed and looking for additional support through the university on compassionate grounds.

If they do take up jobs, there's likely to be disruption when Dad dies, and when you're still quite new in a job that's not what you need.

cyantist

I'm very sorry about your brother.

The University I work at has a financial assistance scheme - I am sure every Uni has one so the nieces should definitely apply to this. Obviously getting the loan reassessed would be the first step, as they wouldn't be able to access this fund if they could take out additional loan.

I'm sure they've done this and other people have suggested it as well, but they should definitely tell their personal tutor about the problems. Medicine isn't an easy degree and if there are issues regarding grades at the end of the year then personal circumstances like this can be taken into account.

I've never known of a Uni where you have to stay on campus for the first year - what about students who live at home? However as they will have signed up to live on campus for a year they can't just move out. Potentially swapping to a cheaper one like lika suggested is a great idea they could consider.

And at Universities there are a lot of ways students can make extra money without being tied into a regular job.

cte1111

It sounds possible that your brother and sister-in-law were aiming to pay for their daughters' university costs themselves, rather than them taking out Student Loans. If so, then the best option for now might well be for them both to take out the maximum loans, as many students will have no choice but to do.

You can only really help if you know all the facts. We can all give advice but without knowing the family's income, savings, current benefits and other information, it is limited how helpful we can be.