Strapped Students Rely on Grandparents as Uni Costs Soar

Bank Of Gran and Grandad Funds £165m Annual University Bill

As students scramble for university places following last week’s A-level results, figures out today reveal that the UK’s grandparents could contribute up to a whopping £165m towards their grandchildren’s university expenses every year¹.

According to a new study by over 50s insurance provider RIAS, almost a quarter of grandparents (24%) with grandchildren aged 17 and 18 contribute over £920 per year towards their education. With rising tuition fees, along with the extra expenses such as accommodation, food and furniture, the 400,000² university students who are set to start their higher education this autumn are likely to leave with a total debt of up to £54,000³ each. So it’s no wonder they are turning to their grandparents for financial support.

Janet Connor, Managing Director of RIAS comments: “When children fly the nest, their parents and grandparents can mistakenly think that they may have more time to relax, but what they may gain back in time they could lose financially! Many teenage children require significant financial support, and grandparents are relied upon to provide vital contributions as the university years beckon.”

BANK OF GRAN & GRANDAD
Grandparents who regularly help out their grandchildren of university age contribute up to a total of £5,270 per year, or £439 every month, across a range of expenditure. Financial help towards education costs, including university, amounts to an annual spend of £927, making up one sixth (18%) of the total amount they spend on their teenage grandchildren.

One off large purchases, such as driving lessons or a first car, top the list of teenage grandchildrens’ expenses – making up over a third (34%) of the amount grandparents spend on grandchildren in their ‘late teens’ each year.

Janet Connor continues: “University is only going to get more and more expensive, with the increased tuition fees coming into play next year. Having a helping hand to foot the bill is a great support - without these vital financial contributions from grandparents, many 17 and 18 year olds may have to sacrifice enjoying the best years of their lives. We know that grandparents relish in offering love, support and financial assistance to their grandchildren, if they can afford it, and families are extremely fortunate to have this financial safety net.”

RIAS is sponsoring the first ever Yours ‘Grandparent of the Year’ Awards 2011. For more information and to enter visit www.yours.co.uk/grandparentoftheyear2011. To find out about RIAS and the range of products and services it offers, visit www.rias.co.uk.

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For further information, please contact:
Claire Wood or Alex Kennedy at Seventy Seven PR on 020 7492 0977 or email rias@77pr.co.uk
Alternatively, contact Lucy Pope, Consumer Communications Manager, RIAS on 01202 254445 or email lpope@rias.co.uk

Notes to Editors
¹ Research commissioned by RIAS and carried out by Opinium between 27th to 29th June 2011. Total sample size was 2,135 grandparents aged over 50 with at least one grandchild. The survey was carried out online.
There are 12.4m over 50s grandparents in the UK (source: Opinium Research, 2011).
6% of UK grandparents have grandchildren aged 17 - 18 years old, equivalent to 744,169 grandparents.
Of those grandparents with grandchildren aged 17 - 18 years old, 24% regularly contribute, equivalent to 178,600 grandparents.
Each of the 178,6000 grandparents could contribute up to an average of £927.48 towards education including university costs, coming to a potential total bill of £165.6m.
² Source: UCAS, August 2011
³ Source: Standard Life, August 2011