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My sister is applying for a maintenance loan for my nephew - they live in England. The website says that the max maintenance loan amount is £10,544, but she is telling me that they won't give him the full loan amount (loan, not grant) because they earn over £25k between her and her partner. She thinks he can only borrow £4.5k or so.
This doesn't seem right as £25k household income makes you poor AF. Also, the Wales website makes it very clear your grant AND loan total £10,480 and if your household income is £25k you can take £4.5k loan but you also get £6k grant. Surely it's not that different in England? She must be missing something.
As you say, sounds wrong. I'm pretty sure our son gets fees and a good chunk on top and we're collectively on way more than £25k
Yeah fees are covered, this is about maintenance. The loan amount doesn't cover hall fees.
Wales and SCotland are much more generous, but in England a household income of £25k will still get a student the max loan - https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator
Never knew Wales still had grants!
Anyway Martin Lewis has a "parental contribution" calculator which is handy:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/university-living-costs-calculator/#!England
Looks like £25k household income is the threshold at which loan amounts begin to taper down from the full 10k
I had absolutely NO idea that students from Wales still get a grant. Thats incredible. I also found out today that prescriptions are free in Wales too.
Bonkers
That link basically has it; there's a 3 box option
Living at home / living away from home outside London / living away from home in London (and then overseas, but not relevant here)
| Rate of loan for students | Maximum loan | Minimum loan |
|---|---|---|
| Living at home | £8,877 | £3,907 |
| Living away from home and studying in London | £13,762 | £6,853 |
| Living away from home and studying outside London | £10,544 | £4,915 |
| Studying overseas as part of a UK course | £12,076 | £5,838 |
How much of that you get slides from max to min but depends on household earnings and other things (like how many other dependants, etc)
Best way is to put in in the calculator but elsewhere on line there's a few examples, eg:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-student-living-costs
Sounds fair enough, the less well off students get more loan!! but not really, the students from the better off households then get stuffed less by the loan, because 1/ their parents either gift them the money; 2/ on the off chance they want it back it won't be at SLC extortionate interest rates. And if it is....that's why your parents are rich, the money grabbing bastards 😉
Living away from your parents, outside London
| Household Income | Maximum Maintenance Loan | Amount available to you | Difference from maximum |
|---|---|---|---|
| up to £25,000 | £10,227 | £10,227 | £0 |
| £45,000 | £10,227 | £7,304 | £2,923 |
| £62,343 | £10,227 | £4,767 (only eligible for minimum amount) | £5,460 |
Oh and another thing - get it done quickly, you're well past the deadline (31/5). There's no deadline for applying itself (actually there is, but it's 9mo after course starts) but they're well past the date to be guaranteed of getting the money before term starts and so you may only get the base level and need to find the money for the first accommodation payment which typically are paid 3x per year while they work out how much above the base level you are due.
My son missed the date by a few days and has just had his confirmed a few weeks later, but would only get base anyway so moot.
Perfect answer there.
Just on top of that, tell her to check every possible scholarship/bursary option. This can be a massive hassle but it can pay off, you can find random funds available that are so restrictive in availability that there's no real competition, you can sometimes get funds even if you totally don't expect it. Like, we had some that were like "student doing economics from this exact school", "student has a parent who is or was a greengrocer", no income requirements, just a wee handout. Donors seem to have a lot of fun making their requirements difficult.
And inevitably the most entitled, well set up middle class helicopter parents were the absolute best at getting money while the kids who needed it most usually didn't even imagine there might be an option.
Used to be part of my job and I had to stop doing it because it made me so crazy. I was entitled to funding I missed out on and 30 years on its the exact bloody same. And literally millions of quid in teh bank just waiting for someone to come get it that we weren't legally allowed to do anything else with. No guarantees of course, but just make sure someone does the work and makes sure.
How does one check for scholarships?
How does one check for scholarships?
Check the university’s website. Check with the admissions tutor. Check with any industry bodies for industries your child might be interested in. There’s still a whole variety of various extras for some students.
I’m pretty sure that Martin Lewis makes the point, but the value of the maintenance loan hasn’t kept pace with the cost of living. Getting the whole amount either straight up or topped up with parental contributions means some tight budgeting or a need for more money depending on where the student is in the country.
Just on top of that, tell her to check every possible scholarship/bursary option
This. Varies hugely by university, but worth checking. Also any local charity trusts to you that may support young people's education.
Yep - some of those numbers look decent but by the time you take into account cost of accommodation, food, course consumables (I would say books but does anyone buy paper books now?), there's not a lot left.
My son's studying in London / living away from home (CSG/Urdang Drama school) starting in Sept. He gets min loan because of mine and my wife's earnings above 65k-ish, so I'll top up to the full £13.7k that the tables above show. But living in halls (private ones, subsidised by the Univ rather than Uni owned) is costing over £8000 for the year (£220/wk) so he then has about £20 a day to live on. In London. And all his 'uniform' (different dancewear for different classes etc.) don't come cheap and wears out fast when your're wearing it 5 days a week. Thankfully he has worked through a year off and has some savings set aside.
£20 is probably enough to survive on, but if you want your kids to enjoy it and live a bit, it doesn't go far.
(fully aware plenty in the country are living on less, many in London)
Another important point to add to the loans question.
Once eligibility is approved (mainly a formality, but the maintenance loan calc can take some time) then the course fees are paid direct to the Institution, so no need to worry about them.
The maintenance loan isn't paid 'before term starts' as I said, actually the final step is enrolling on the course and starting. If my daughter's experience is to go by, that is seamless, Uni presses a button somewhere and a few days later the first amount turned up. But, even if you don't have your first tranche of rent to pay yet, you will need some money for the first few days/week or so before that comes in.
And then your maintenance loan is paid in chunks (assume same as son's has been confirmed as, they will get it in three chunks in Sept, Jan, and May) But his hall of residence rent is paid out monthly from Oct-Apr - and so he's getting his last maintenance loan amount after all his rent is paid so has a cashflow situation. If I had the savings to pay him in three chunks with his maintenance loan it would be better, but to enable budgeting for him and me I planned to give him my part of the loan in monthly amounts. But then doing a cash flow projection he will run out in Dec, and then get another loan tranche in Jan, and then in Mar/Apr run out badly. So I need to look at that.....
TLDR - if as parents you are topping up, make sure that the cashflow works rather than just a monthly sum, you might need to be doing some planning as well.