The Financial Problems Of Being A Student
Students at Exeter University are facing the highest cost of living in the UK according to NatWest’s latest annual ‘Student Living Index’.
The research looked at 26 UK university towns and the results show that Exeter university students spend on average £294 per week on housing and living costs, whilst only making £67 per week in part time work. This makes living in Exeter more expensive than London universities!
Many students will need to juggle their budgets but here are some important considerations to bear in mind when it comes to your housing and part time employment.
First, can you and your housemate afford the rent and what happens if you or they can’t?
- If your lease has all the names of your housemates on it, then it is very likely to be a joint tenancy. This means you are all renting the whole house or flat as one group and the landlord can pursue all of you (jointly) or just one of you (separately) for any rent or for breach of any other terms of the tenancy
- Unfortunately, if one of your housemates fail to pay their rent then it is likely that you and your other housemates will have to split their share between you for the whole length of the term of the lease or until a replacement housemate can be found. Before replacing your flatmate, it is advisable to speak to your landlord to check if your tenancy allows this. If he refuses then you may be able to ask for compensation
- If the landlord brings a claim against you for your housemate’s unpaid rent you may be able to make a claim against the housemate in the small claims court
- However, better still, avoid soured friendships, and consider insisting on an individual tenancy agreement so that you are only responsible for your own rent
Second, if you are going to get a job part-time workers are entitled to the same terms and conditions of employment as full time workers. If there are any differences the employers must be able to objectively justify them.
In particular,
- All employees working for 6 hours or longer are entitled to a 20 minute unpaid rest break
- All part time employees are entitled to paid holiday based on their normal working week
- All employees whose earnings are at least equivalent to the lower earnings limit (currently £90 per week) are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) which is currently £75.40 a week. Unfortunately, SSP does not start until the fourth day of sickness. However, if your employers pay more than the statutory entitlement, part-timers should also receive the same benefits
- All workers are entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW), regardless of the hours they work. The NMW is currently £4.60 per hour for those aged 18 to 21 and £5.52 for workers aged 22 and over.
The good news is that the government plans to change the law so that tips, gratuities and service charges can no longer be used to make hourly rates up to the National Minimum Wage. This must be a welcome change for all you students in the catering and hospitality industry!
For more information, please contact Pollyanna Hall on 01392 411221 or email pollyanna.hall@footanstey.com
Thursday, 21 August 2008
