The total amount of costs for college or university will depend
on the length of course that your child chooses. Most courses
will be between two and six years long.
There are now only two options you can consider - either let your
child get into debt on order to fund thier studies or find the
money from your own resources to enable them to complete their
education.
STUDENT
DEBT
| Department
for Education and Employment |
"
Students will receive more of their support for living costs
through the support loan than through the maintenance grant.
From 1999/2000, maintanance grants have been replaced by income-related
loans".
For
the average new student with the maximum student loan,
the EXTRA debt at the end of each year will be £1,766,
assuming that they are able to live on no more than £5,401
pa
And these debts are increasing every year for new students.
Your child may work to help towards these extra expenses
but this could interfere with their studies if taken too
far. |
|
 |
Source: Department for Education and Employment - maximum of
student loan for new students living outside London, excluding
the final year.
|
|
And of course the student loans themselves have to be repaid.
Once your child has graduated and their income is at least £10,000
a year, they must begin to pay back their loan. The following
table shows the monthly repayments required, depending on their
earnings level. |
|
Income
each year
|
Monthly
repayments
|
Repayment
as % of income
|
|
up to £10,000
|
Nil
|
Nil
|
|
£11,000
|
£7
|
0.8%
|
|
£12,000
|
£15
|
1.5%
|
|
£15,000
|
£37
|
3.0%
|
|
£17,000
|
£52
|
3.7%
|
|
£20,000
|
£75
|
4.5%
|
Source
: Department for Education and Employment
|
| |
|
How
would this affect your child? The average starting salary for
graduates varies considerabley depending on their chosen occupation.
For example, a computer analyst could be earning over £17,000
a year after graduation, a health professional might be on 14,600
a year, while the starting salary for someone going into catering
might be only £9,200.
Working from the table above, these earnings levels would result
in very different repayment amounts. |
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