Student Loan - Phasing of Payments

duncster

My son is off to university this September. He will only get the minimum Student Loan, so I will be giving him the difference. He is staying in halls of residence. They require payment for the three terms - Autumn and Spring are calculated on 16.8 weeks worth of rent each, where as Summer is only 8.4 - this makes sense as the summer one is shorter! 
However, I am now just looking at the phasing of the government based student maintenance loan. This is phased as £1492.92 for the autumn and spring terms and £1538.16 in summer. If it was an even three-way split of £1,508 I could just about understand it - but as with most things in relation to student finance, it doesn't make sense for the (admittedly slightly) higher payment to be made in Spring - unless cynically one could believe it is a positive cashflow benefit for them.
Ultimately, it means I will be paying more for my son in Autumn and Spring and then will have a slight bonus in the spring. 

Rant over - let me know if I have misunderstood