University fees and savings

Ren1974

Hi, my children and I (ages 49, 16 and 12) received inheritance last year and we have put it into savings for my eventual retirement and for the children to be able to get onto the property ladder.  My question is will these savings effect university grants and loans? 

MX5huggy

Potential, where in the UK are you residents? 

Your retirement savings should be in a pension this probably shelters them from being assessed. 

What are your earnings because if you’re earning £80k having £300k in the bank ain’t going to make any difference. 

Keep_pedalling

I presume your oldest child is19 rather than 49. 

Their inheritance should not be sitting in your pension fund. Assuming that your children have received an absolute gift from the will, the bequests to the two younger children should be sitting in a bare trust until they are 18 and the bequest to the 19 year old should be paid to him now. 

CrickJon

Keep_pedalling said:

I presume your oldest child is19 rather than 49. 

Their inheritance should not be sitting in your pension fund. Assuming that your children have received an absolute gift from the will, the bequests to the two younger children should be sitting in a bare trust until they are 18 and the bequest to the 19 year old should be paid to him now. 

It's her inheritance as well and she's 49 is the way I read it. With two children age 16 and 12?

Keep_pedalling

CrickJon said:

Keep_pedalling said:

I presume your oldest child is19 rather than 49. 

Their inheritance should not be sitting in your pension fund. Assuming that your children have received an absolute gift from the will, the bequests to the two younger children should be sitting in a bare trust until they are 18 and the bequest to the 19 year old should be paid to him now. 

It's her inheritance as well and she's 49 is the way I read it. With two children age 16 and 12?

Whoops! Senior moment, somehow I missed the ‘and I’ bit.

Was your inheritance just in your name or were the children left a specific amount or percentage each? If the latter then those inheritances need to be held in trust for them separate from your own savings or pensions.

thunderroad88

Savings interest will count towards the household income figure they use to assess the amount of maintenance loan your children can get. If your household income is under £25k they’ll get full maintenance loans. This reduces on a sliding scale as household income increases above £25k. They’ll get full tuition fees loans no matter what your household income,

refluxer

When it comes to applying for student maintenance loans, it's your income and the student's income that's assessed. 

They ask about income in the form of salaries, pensions and the interest on your savings, but not the total amount of savings you have tucked away.

There is plenty of information about student loans online (including tables which show the maximum loan you'll get vs your income if you want to get an idea of how much they'll be entitled to) but just be aware that the student loan plans change occasionally and it's quite likely the plan could change again if your children are a good few years away from going to university.

Ellierose

I have a daughter who will start uni sept 2026. Does anyone know what tax year income they check? Use for the purpose of deciding the maintenance loan amount. Would they just use 2026 paye or p60 for previous year or 2. We earn £65k joint and could live off savings for 2 years for example and max pension contributions to earn the £25k max. Any help would be appreciated 

refluxer

They usually want income information from 2 years ago so that would be the 2022-23 tax year if you were applying for a student loan this year and the current tax year (2024-25) if applying in 2026.
That's assuming the plan doesn't change in the meantime, of course.

Your income includes salary, pension and savings interest, plus (IIRC) any dividend income. You need to inform them if you're making AVCs into a pension, although I'm not sure what effect that has. It'll make sense to read up on student loans now if you're wanting to take actions that'll affect the outcome in 2 year's time.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/student-finance-and-tax-system/student-finance-applications

https://www.ucas.com/student-finance-england/student-finance-guidance-parents-and-partners#whats-available