First of all, I am going to talk to you about tuition fees. These tend to be around £9250 (at the time of publishing). I'm fairly sure everyone applies for this (although you don't have to if you can afford to pay it yourself) and no matter your background, student finance will always give you the full amount. This is paid directly to your chosen university, so you have nothing to worry about on this front as student finance takes care of it for you. They will ask you the university you are planning on attending and the course, and even if you aren't entirely sure which uni you're going to, you have to give an answer. In some cases, this may change, for example, if you apply to go elsewhere through clearing in August. If this is the case you can change this information and student finance will ensure the fee is then paid to your new university.
Now, here is the harder bit. The maintenance loan. This is something no one benefits from. As how much money you get depends on your parents' income (if you still live with one or both of them), this means you can either get the amount you need or won't get anywhere near this - something that a lot of people find to be a great problem, particularly if they are living in accommodation. No matter your background, everyone who applies for a loan is guaranteed at least around £4000 (although I'm not 100% on this). You then have the option to apply for more money, where you can either apply for the full amount (which in my case was no more than £8700) or you can request an amount. I say no one benefits from this as those who get too little end up with lower debt, and those who get enough to get by end up having a higher debt.
As for some reason it is expected that your parents will give you financial help, this is why some people may get more money than others. If your parents earn £25,000 or under per annum, you're pretty much guaranteed to get the full amount if you apply for it. Basically, the more your parents earn, the less finance you are going to get. This is why I would recommend if you can, that you attend a university that is close to home. I get that most people want to move away from home to go to university, however speaking from experience this gets very expensive and it is much more financially viable to stay at home than it is to move away.
The amount you get also depends on your location:
Obviously, these amounts will change throughout your time at university (as you can see from the table above). These may get more or less throughout this time, so I think this is important to bear in mind whenever you apply, which you have to do before the start of each academic year. This is so they can look at your current financial situation, as this will then depend on how much you can get for the next academic year. So even if you get the full amount one year, the next you may get less if your parents' income has increased.
You also won't get all of this money from when you first start university as it is divided into three points across the year - September, January, and April. This should coincide with the first day of each term. During first year I received £2871 in September and January and £2958 in April. If you are in accommodation you should work out how much of this you need to spend on rent (in my case it was £1852 for the first two terms and £1358 for the third). Once you have done this, you should work out a budget for everything else you are going to spend money on, such as food shopping, toiletries and any other essentials, such as money for travelling home and for petrol if you are keeping your car at uni (which I wouldn't recommend as only a few accommodations have parking spaces but these are limited and are something else you need to pay for). It may seem like a lot at first like it did for me, but believe me, it soon gets spent and you don't want to be that student who is having to borrow money off friends and/or live off really basic food. I have had friends at university who have had to live like this because they spent all of their money on nights out and other things they didn't need to spend their money on. As nights out seem to be the main reason for students not having any money, if your friends ask you to go on a night out but you don't think you can afford it, don't let them peer pressure you into going. Just explain to them that you don't have enough money right now and they're bound to understand as you're all pretty much in the same boat.
I'm fairly certain I have covered everything here, however, if you have any other questions then please comment them down below and I'll do my best to answer them. Or, if you are a student and think I have missed something that someone else might find useful, then please also comment down below.
Lastly, I would just like to wish you all the luck at university and even though it is not always the smoothest of rides, I hope you enjoy it.
Love Beth xx
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