Should student maintanence loans be judged bases on your parent's income

Master race full student loan and grant and accommodation costs written off so don't have to pay any accommodation because my parents are poor, you jelly?

If you're 25 and apply for a mortgage on a house, they won't ask how much your parents earn.

I totally sympathise with you here. Sometimes it's difficult for parents to give money to there children even when classed as high earners, they should be under no obligation to give you a penny. But the state doesn't provide enough funding to cover accommodation, never mind living expenses. Whereas other students get far more than needed, ending up saving a couple of thousand pounds a year.

If you're 25 and applying for student finance a funding body won't ask how much your parents earn. Those aged over 25 are independent students.

The result of such a huge expansion in Higher Education over this last generation or so has meant university grants are no longer feasible.

It therefore makes sense to make access to Student Finance wholly, or at least partly, income based.

A student should never feel that they can't afford to got to university. Even once they are at university, but fall into a state of financial distress, there's additional funding such as Access to Learning. The financial support is always there.

There are other ways of gaining a university degree. Do one part-time through distance learning and while in employment. This can actually be quite sensible and far more beneficial for some.

Academic achievement? Everyone student should be given enough money to live off of, which isn't currently happening, and those who do better should be given more incentives.Someone shouldn't receive far more money than they need because of there parent's personal finances.

One of the more ridiculous situations I heard was when a friend of mine, a mature student, was asked how much his partner earns by student finance, in aid of ascertaining the amount of support he should get. That's just ridiculous. Expecting his girlfriend to subsidise his education?

What if you lived with housemates? People you're not in any kind of relationship with, just people you share a house with for financial reasons. I suppose their income would be taken into account.

Very jelly kelly

There isn't simply enough money to give everybody a decent, fair amount, especially since the government has recently cut finances in education. You can argue that those who achieve better academically can apply for scholarships which help a great deal since some of them reach to around £3000. Many parents, not all, if rich would be willing to contribute to their child's maintenance fees, whereas this isn't possible for those from poorer backgrounds. It makes perfect sense to give those from poorer backgrounds more money, but I agree that the amount of money they may receive is a lot more than needed, and the amount of money given to those from bottom middle class backgrounds is a lot less than needed. The principle makes sense, but the maths is all wrong and inevitably the bottom middle class lose out.

I assume they are living together? If so, what's ridiculous about that? They are in an adult relationship and living together, of course the partner's income should be included. It is household income, after all.

Don't worry I don;t spend it on alcohol because i'm teetotal. I don't buy anything materialistic besides clothes

Unlike someone, (this isn't made up) i know someone on Facebook who posted a picture of their account balance and they go to the same university as me and get full student loans and grants and he is £600 into his overdraft after the first term. I'm nowhere near that, my next loan comes in the upcoming Monday on the 6th and I still have around £240 in my bank left over which I could use for another 2 months or so before running out.

It pisses me off that people can waste money like that. (Even though I did spend £200 in the past two months on clothes but that's because i don't own many clothes, i only have 1 pair of jeans) but i digress. Some people get their loan and waste it all on alcohol. My university is doing a "re-freshers" events going on when everyone comes back and some guy on the freshers page in comment to response to this thought it was funny to post 'it was nice having my student loan for a week' in anticipation of the future.

Just quote to manitude from earlier in the thread:

"By extension to this, universities should be more selective in who they enroll. This would inevitably lead to the closure of some universities and a reduction in the number of people who get degrees. Ultimately it would increase the value of all degrees as something that only academically superior people can achieve. It would discourage people from pursuing higher education when it's not necessarily appropriate for them. As I see it there are too many people enrolling in universities "for the university experience" or because they think it's necessary to have a degree to succeed in life"

Basically this, not everyone needs a degree, if we made our system of higher education leaner, then we'd have enough to give everyone enough to live off of.

totally agree with OP, there really needs to be a more level field to help out the middle earners.
Also here's my situation:
my mum is classed as a high earner and my dad doesn't work as he stays home to care for my handicapped brother. But my household is still classed as high earning. My parents can't afford to give me any money for uni as they have to pay for my brother to go to special school and for his care so I have to dip into my inheritance which will surely be gone when I finish uni, if it lasts that long.

Whereas, my friend is from a single parent household and her mum is a benefits fraud (but unreported).

So basically, you're saying that people should only go to university if they're doing what's considered to be 'tougher' or 'more useful' degrees such as medicine, maths, chemistry...?

So report her, then. You might be concerned about the effect it will have on your friend, but she's an adult now.

You aren't going to feel any less bitter. When you graduate you'll be paying tax and NI contributions which will be going straight into her pocket, and the pockets of every other person committing benefit fraud (which, I must emphasise, is only a tiny proportion of total benefit claimants).

Though you might feel bitter, this is only because you're comparing your situation to a quite. Your friend, with the other who's an alleged benefit fraudster, is not typical of the vast majority of families who receive

I think that the more academic subjects should be taught at universities yes, and those subjects which are more vocational, eg photography, don't necessarily need a degree behind them.

I've never understood why kids in 'richer' households are expected to have their parents pay for them. It would be simple to give them the max loan seeing as it's them who'll pay it back. For poorer students, we have more than enough to live on for university.

Don't see why they can't just give everyone the full amount. I do 2 12 hour shifts a week to pay my way through uni, my loan doesn't even cover my rent. I'd like to do slightly less proper work and more uni work, but thats the way it's got to be

True, but people should be given the option, provided that they are educated properly about their decision.

Because it costs more money, and not everyone will re-pay the entire loan anyway.

How do I even report someone?

Would she know who reported her? I dunno... I would just feel so guilty (even though she would really deserve to be reported)

and I didn't mean to imply at all that people on benefits are all like this, I was just comparing 2 situations