Middle class parents face hidden costs of more than £5,000 a year to send their children to university 

  • Government provides maintenance loans for students depending on parental income to help pay for rent, food and other costs
  • All students also entitled to tuition fee loans to cover course costs
  • Means children of many middle earners are only receiving loans to cover half the cost of living
  • Parents with household income of £69,800 need to find £4,379 extra for students away from home and up to £5,372 in London
  • For parents earning £35k between them, expected contributions for living away from home are £1,177 and £1,199 for London 

By Eleanor Harding, Education Correspondent For The Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:

Middle class parents are facing 'hidden' costs of more than £5,000 a year to send their offspring to university, new analysis reveals.

Statistics from the Student Loans Company reveal the government expects many middle-income parents to save up thousands to make up the shortfall in student living costs.

The government provides maintenance loans for students depending on parental income to help pay for rent, food and other costs.

In addition, all students are entitled to tuition fee loans to cover course costs.

Statistics from the Student Loans Company reveal the government expects many middle-income parents to save up thousands to make up the shortfall in student living costs

Statistics from the Student Loans Company reveal the government expects many middle-income parents to save up thousands to make up the shortfall in student living costs

The means-testing sliding scale for maintenance loans means children of many middle earners are only receiving loans to cover half the cost of living.

Parents with a household income of £69,800 need to find up to £4,379 extra for students living away from home and up to £5,372 for those living away and in London.

The London contribution represents a 20 per cent rise on last year.

Meanwhile, for parents earning £35,000 between them, expected contributions for living away from home are £1,177 – a rise of 24 per cent – and for London they are £1,199 – a rise of 27 per cent.

The figures, compiled by MoneySavingExpert.com, suggest families are increasingly having to pick up the bill for living costs at university.

Martin Lewis, website founder, said: 'It's often said 'you don't need to pay upfront to go to university' and that may be true for tuition fees, but the sharp rise of means-testing for living loans means that the real problem is loans aren't big enough.

'For a huge majority of students it simply won't cover even basic accommodation costs.'

Parents with a household income of £69,800 need to find up to £4,379 extra for students living away from home and up to £5,372 for those living away and in London

Parents with a household income of £69,800 need to find up to £4,379 extra for students living away from home and up to £5,372 for those living away and in London

Mr Lewis warned that some parents were not even aware they were expected to make up the shortfall, and simply sent their children to university with the loan money.

He said the government does not inform parents that they need to pay extra money – or how much – leaving some youngsters without enough cash to survive on.

He said: 'The official calculations show that parents are meant to make up the difference, yet they are never told the amount.

'This causes conflict between students and their parents. It also leaves some students in a dire position.

'While parents are supposed to contribute, many can't or don't, or they see the amount as loose.

'This leaves some students risking debt or dropping out of university due to cash flow issues.

'It's about time we had transparency on this. That would both aid parents in planning and students in budgeting, and mean the government can't get away with tinkering the numbers and increasing the practical costs of going to university without having to be upfront to parents about it.'

The amount parents are expected to pay has increased partially because the government has increased the total minimum amount it believes a student needs in a year to survive on.

For this reason, the loan amounts provided for most students have also increased.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: 'There should be no barrier to any child's ambitions and we are already seeing record numbers of disadvantaged young people going to university.

'We want to go further and ensure we are building a society that works for everyone.

'We have increased maintenance support for students from the lowest income backgrounds by 10 per cent.

'As the OECD has recognised, this Government's approach to student finance is sustainable. Maintenance support is provided as a contribution to students' costs.‎

'Financial assistance is also available through universities.'

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