How much are parents supposed to give their children when they go to university?

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  • missbiggles1
    missbiggles1 Posts: 17,481
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    silvercar wrote: »
    Your article makes no mention (or include in the figures) that students who get the maximum support are also eligible for bursaries from the universities themselves. Students with parental income of <£25k can often also receive a bursary of on average £2,000. Full table.

    Add that to the tables above to present a more accurate picture.

    Students with extremely well off parents and those with low income parents do very well, it is those in the middle that are often squeezed between loans that do not cover their needs and parents who can't afford to offer a lot of help.

    Many parents who say they can't afford to help forget the money they'll be saving by not having to keep the child at home. Even allowing for the loss of CB, most parents will be much better off when a child leaves home to go to university so should be able to afford to help, even if they initially think it isn't possible.
  • I graduated from University in 2015 with a BSc Mathematics and Statistics from Newcastle. I then moved to London to start a job on £26k a year.

    When I started paying back my student loan (April 2016) my repayments were £37 a month. However in June I resigned from this post and was paid 4 months salary in one bulk payment, that month I ended up paying nearly £600 off my student loan.

    I spoke to the people at the Student Loan company this week to explain that this payment was just a bulk 4 months salary and whether it would be possible to rectify this deduction to be in line with what I had been paying on any other month, they said it would not be possible until April when I would then have to ring again (My bank has 3 blank months with no salary in). Considering that I have not been long out of university the fact that it couldn't be sorted out now has left me a little short changed (roughly £360) at the moment and I am concerned.

    My other concern is for people who are in jobs which reward employees with a bonus every 6 months or a year. In that months salary they will be deducted far more than they had in previous months due to the assumption of them earning that amount every month, (equating that to a yearly salary and taking 9%). In my case, to be paying back £600 a month on my student loan would give the assumption that my salary is £100K per year, which at 22 is farcical.

    As far as I am aware the student loan company will not deal with this in the same way as a tax rebate at the end of the financial year and students should be careful they don't end up paying more than they should. The only way seemingly that they will get it back is by chasing it up for themselves. I was wondering if Martin or anyone else has any advice on how to make sure that others don't get caught out paying back more than they should on the "loan" and how best I am to proceed with my own dilemma.
  • Naf
    Naf Posts: 3,160
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    NottsBrown wrote: »
    I graduated from University in 2015 with a BSc Mathematics and Statistics from Newcastle. I then moved to London to start a job on £26k a year.

    When I started paying back my student loan (April 2016) my repayments were £37 a month. However in June I resigned from this post and was paid 4 months salary in one bulk payment, that month I ended up paying nearly £600 off my student loan.

    I spoke to the people at the Student Loan company this week to explain that this payment was just a bulk 4 months salary and whether it would be possible to rectify this deduction to be in line with what I had been paying on any other month, they said it would not be possible until April when I would then have to ring again (My bank has 3 blank months with no salary in). Considering that I have not been long out of university the fact that it couldn't be sorted out now has left me a little short changed (roughly £360) at the moment and I am concerned.

    My other concern is for people who are in jobs which reward employees with a bonus every 6 months or a year. In that months salary they will be deducted far more than they had in previous months due to the assumption of them earning that amount every month, (equating that to a yearly salary and taking 9%). In my case, to be paying back £600 a month on my student loan would give the assumption that my salary is £100K per year, which at 22 is farcical.

    As far as I am aware the student loan company will not deal with this in the same way as a tax rebate at the end of the financial year and students should be careful they don't end up paying more than they should. The only way seemingly that they will get it back is by chasing it up for themselves. I was wondering if Martin or anyone else has any advice on how to make sure that others don't get caught out paying back more than they should on the "loan" and how best I am to proceed with my own dilemma.


    AFAIK thats just the way it works. Like NI contributions its actually based on the individual pay packet's pro-rata amount, and you don't get a rebate across the year. Happy to be contradicted if I'm wrong, though.
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  • Naf wrote: »
    AFAIK thats just the way it works. Like NI contributions its actually based on the individual pay packet's pro-rata amount, and you don't get a rebate across the year. Happy to be contradicted if I'm wrong, though.

    Thanks for the reply! Does this then mean that anyone who is not paid in monthly installments (opting for quarterly or similar) will lose out as a consequence of this?

    One of the reasons I'm wondering is because in my case I will be paying 3 times the amount of student loan per year than would be predicted by any of the repayment calculators due to one month as an outlying figure. This may then have a dramatic effect in the long term (if I managed to get a job paying bonus schemes as I mentioned earlier) and I would then greatly consider whether I am best to pay off lump sums of my loan to avoid paying more than I need to due to extortionate interest rates.

    I know that Martin has been championing the fight against retrospective changes to student loan payments etc so felt that this was the best platform to get some advice/info.
  • I don't even have kids yet, but even I don't understand how this system has came to exist in the way it currently does. Why does the earnings of two (or one) independant adult(s), have any bearing on what another independant adult wants to borrow for university education and associated costs?

    Imagine if it was applied to all borrowing avenues through your adult life and not just university. I've just applied for a mortgage, not once was I asked what my parents earn, and if they earned more than X I could only have 60% of what I require, and the rest would have to be stumped up by them. It's madness.

    Just because I earn X a year, doesn't mean I have £2.5k free lying around every year to stump up to subsidise adult children's further education choices, twofold if I'd had two children attending university simultaneously.
  • Is there no allowance made for Twins?

    'Natures gift' and both applying to uni for next year.

    Not planned for but somehow we'll manage.
  • XRAT
    XRAT Posts: 239
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    edited 9 September 2016 at 8:46PM
    My children finished University in 2014 & '15. I was able to help them, by helping myself. The returns were impressive!
    Student loan/grants are based upon household income. Household income is joint income after deduction of pension contributions...
    Can you afford to pay more to your pension, thus reducing your household income and benefit your student with higher grants or loans?
    It is currently possible to pay £40,000/year each, from earned income into a pension, with associated tax benefits. (So a child from a £105,000 household income family can still receive maximum grant/loan.)
    The 'household income' assessment at the time mine were studying was based on income from the tax year 2 years prior to starting Uni (i.e. the year the student starts A levels.) So if you have time, plan ahead.
    It may be that you would only be able to sustain higher pension contributions for one financial year (If you have the standard 2 children, 2 years apart maximise the advantage, do it for the year that they are both at Uni.)
  • Don't know if its still true but daughter did an nhs course a couple of years ago and although she was supporting herself the full loan given was over £1000 less less than she would have got had she been on an ordinary course. This is of course excluding the £3000 or so for the fees which are met by the NHS
  • silvercar
    silvercar Posts: 46,829
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    I don't even have kids yet, but even I don't understand how this system has came to exist in the way it currently does. Why does the earnings of two (or one) independant adult(s), have any bearing on what another independant adult wants to borrow for university education and associated costs?

    Imagine if it was applied to all borrowing avenues through your adult life and not just university. I've just applied for a mortgage, not once was I asked what my parents earn, and if they earned more than X I could only have 60% of what I require, and the rest would have to be stumped up by them. It's madness.

    Just because I earn X a year, doesn't mean I have £2.5k free lying around every year to stump up to subsidise adult children's further education choices, twofold if I'd had two children attending university simultaneously.

    This is the point, the government now consider that students are not financially independent and therefore parent(s) are expected to contribute. As you don't yet have kids, you can consider this 18 years notice of current expectations.

    Basically children gain some independence at 16, more at 18 but do not as students reach levels of full financial independence until 25.
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  • Sorry if I have missed this somewhere, but how is the parents' income assessed? Before/After tax? Is savings interest included? what about ISAs?
    We are both in our 60s, in receipt of pensions (my husband State pension), & have low paid part-time jobs, so our incomes are relatively low. Our daughter will be applying for finance this year to start 2017 & we may need to make some decisions dependent on the above. Can anyone help please?
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