student marriage vs loans

tr3mor

me and my girlfriend are both students and living together, near to our university, at the moment i'm currently getting £4000ish loan and my fees paid for me and she's just getting the £4000 loan, because of parents incomes taken into account.

if we were to get married, we would be entitled to both of our fees being paid, and get HE grants of £1000.

i was wondering if there were any other grants we'd be entitled to, such as adult dependents (what is this?).

also, what are the moral implications of this. i have and still will get married in a church, probably to my current girlfriend, but at the moment, we wouldn't even bother with that, would we be able to get married again, once leaving uni?

is it worth the £94 registry office fee to be at least £6000 better off?!

David_Brent

Sounds a bit jerry springer to me I wouldn't do it you may regret it, even if it is so, marriage shouldn't be about money!!!

tr3mor

i know marriage shouldn't be about money, and it wouldn't really be, basically, me and my girlfriend are near enough married anyway, and personally, even if i had a marriage cert i wouldn't see myself as married to her. she'd still keep her name, not get a ring etc. until we decided to do so properly, when we'd have the big church wedding with all the frills etc.

hmmmm. seems like a very easy way to make £6000 though, and be financially comfortable for the next 2 years.

BWZN93

But say for instance, you find yourselves breaking up in 12 months time. That £6000 - its gonna go to the solicitors in fees to get a divorce.

You dont say how old you are, but people change SO MUCH during their time at uni, and even the most solid of relationships at uni that I have seen have broken down.

The fact that you say that even if you had a marriage cert you wouldnt see yourself as married to her. Well, Frankly, you need to be a bit more mature when you enter into this kind of agreement, as it is not £94 for an easy £6000. Marriage is SERIOUS. Yes I know the divorce statistics etc, but tbh - If my boyf had been married before, id be pretty annoyed, if you get divorced, you have a whole can of worms to deal with.

Secondly, what if one of you fails your degree and has to work etc? Or just decided to quit uni? Then that working person has to support the other through it financially, so you may commit yourself to more than you are willing and able to deal with. I suggest getting a part time job if things are difficult, not getting married. Thats crazy.

Jo xx

Ember999

If you wouldn't even bother to 'think' you were married, behave like you are married and would not wear a ring, then in my opinion you are heading for divorce anyway! so why bother getting married? Ridiculous idea hon. Get married when you find the girl you can't live without, not one you can live with (but would deny being married to) and one that would give you benefit of saving £6,000.

Spendless

tr3mor wrote:

even if i had a marriage cert i wouldn't see myself as married to her. she'd still keep her name, not get a ring etc. until we decided to do so properly, when we'd have the big church wedding with all the frills etc.

This makes it sound like you're more interested in the wedding than the marriage that goes with it. No don't do it.

SnowyOwl_2

You seem to think that marriage is a thing to be taken lightly and entering a sham marriage doesn't bother you. Well, why not go the whole hog and BOTH of you marry foreigners who are desperate for visas for the UK???? You'd get £10k each I am sure. Oh OK I am taking the p*ss.

Urm...sell a kidney each, maybe £15k tax free. Not legal, might kill you....oh OK taking the p*ss again.

I know....get a job! Tesco, Sainsbury's, Argos....etc etc etc.... employ students. AND now that you are here on MSE why not use the advice about budgeting, managing debt/credit cards etc, banking, selling on ebay/amazon, home cooking, and so on and so forth to make what money you do have coming in go further?? Only a suggestion, sorry if it is too much effort.

Phonix

You need to divorce the financial constraint from the marriage. marriage is not supposed to be conditional in that sort of way.

How long have you been living with her?

Length of time is not supposed to be a condition on marriage either but the if you've been living with her for ages and you're happy living with her then you've passed one of the marriage tests already.

However as others have said, some of your comments give the impression you are not taking marriage seriously. You WOULD be MARRIED to her, there is no halfway house.

jo_b_2

tr3mor wrote:

even if i had a marriage cert i wouldn't see myself as married to her. she'd still keep her name, not get a ring etc. until we decided to do so properly, when we'd have the big church wedding with all the frills etc.

hmmmm. seems like a very easy way to make £6000 though, and be financially comfortable for the next 2 years.

Sorry to jump on the bandwagon, but it does sound as though you are more concerned about the wedding than the marriage.

The fancy wedding is just a day; marriage should be for life. Sorry for sounding all sentimental!

Bagpuss1973

I cannot believe that I have just read here!

You would consider marriage to make money??

You have said alot of "I" think this and that, how does your girlfriend feel?

Would you families be happy to be joined together through your marriage of convenience? Also, just out of interest would you be seeing other people in this marriage sham that obviously means nothing to you. You also state that you would have the big wedding later on, I'm not sure it works like that as you would already be married, you might be able to have a blessing but not a second "marriage".

I would hate to marry my boyfriend because of money, we plan to marry at some point but strangely because we love each other and cannot envisage living without each other, because if we marry we will probably be worse off because we plan to have children and would definately be better off if I became a single mother! There's an idea why don't you throw a disposable child into the plan as well! Youl could claim family tax credit and things like that then too!

I suggest you grow up a bit before even contemplating marriage. Sorry to be harsh but marriage is a serious business not something to be played with like it's a tv movie or something.

pug_in_a_bed

Hello

Can someone, or the OP, jsut clear this up for me: at the moment both are on about '£4000ish loan' and fees for just the OP, but if they got married they'd get £1000 HE grants, is that each? how does it add up to £6000? by adding this £1000x 2 grants to the yearly loan figure?

If thats right then its not even that much more money.
i can kind of understand because I was so, so broke at university.
I guess this shows how desperate students can get.

But the majority of my girlfriends would have screamed the place down if this was even hinted at by their partners.

If you do this, I really think you'll live to regret it. If you want to get married so soon, get married a year after you graduate, what a brilliant celebration you could have then, when you've both grown up a bit and had a chance to save up.

However, stop this right now and think about what you're saying: think about how your family would feel, or have you already discussed it?

Apply for some scholarships of uni awards instead you can probably make up this ammount that way if you're canny about it.

In my third year i finally realized these existed and on top of my loan and having fees paid I got £1200 scholarship for being a liverpudlian with a vague interest in the environment (planted trees at school).