Money Tips Podcast

How to get bursaries and assisted places for top private schools

The gift of education is one of the most valuable things you can give to your children. However, the cost of sending a child or grandchild to an independent or private (strangely, also known as a “public school”) school has soared well above the rate of inflation, yet the number of UK pupils in private education has never been higher. Why is this?

Part of the answer is that more than £1bn a year of financial assistance is available to parents, enabling one in three students to have their school fees reduced or even waived, according to the FT.

School fees have become a major problem for the middle classes in recent years. The cost of a private education is nearly 50% higher than a decade ago, according to data from the Independent Schools Council (ISC).

Average fees for day pupils are now nearly £4,800 per term, or just over £14,000 a year. Fees are higher in the Southeast and London, where boarding school fees now average more than £13,000 a term — close to £40,000 per year, according to the ISC.

Scholarships and bursaries have become a key factor in affordability, but many parents may not be aware of the level of help available. For instance, at some schools, parents who apply for means-tested support could qualify even if they have a household income of £90,000.

Competition for the brightest children means that an increasing amount of assistance is being provided on a “needs blind” basis to pupils with a flair for particular subjects, such as music and sports.

My Son won a music scholarship and bursary, which covered part of the fees, and a government assisted place scheme, which was later abolished by the Tony Blair government.

The strict application criteria will vary for each school, but typically with a high level of financial disclosure required to obtain means-tested funding.

Schools reject assistance requests from parents who own second homes or expensive properties. If the school senses parents could afford to pay the fees by downsizing their home, or asking grandparents for help, they will say so.

Independent schools need to justify their charitable status, which has encouraged more generosity in the form of scholarships and means-tested bursaries. The ISC says that £800m of the £1bn provided in “fee assistance” last year came directly from the schools themselves.

Over 175,000 ISC students currently enjoy some form of fee reduction, around half of these through means testing. The number of those receiving “free” fully paid places more than 6,000 pupils, an increase of 5 per cent year-on-year.

Parents of children who win a scholarship can often also apply for a bursary — often referred to as an “assisted place”.

In addition to help with school fees, financial help may be granted towards the cost of expensive uniforms, sports equipment, laptops, trips and other travel costs. The vast majority of this kind of financial assistance is directed at UK families, but many parents do not know how to access the increased funding. “Believe it or not, it’s quite a challenge for independent schools to get applications from the families for whom their bursaries are intended — gifted children from low-income families,” says Catherine Stoker, managing director of Independent Education Consultants, which advises parents on choosing the right school. “Scholarships and bursaries are certainly one of the most ‘searched for’ items on our website,” she says. “Parents often call us for advice on how to secure bursaries — it’s a confusing area. Parents who would be eligible often lack the confidence to call their local independent school and inquire about how to apply. Sometimes they don’t know bursaries exist.”

In general, schools will seek to ascertain the “relevant income” — the gross household income less an amount of between £2,000 and £3,000 per dependent child. Having relevant income of £20,000 or less would usually qualify for full fees to be paid, but some schools will provide funding on a sliding scale of up to £90,000.

Despite the fact that sending a child to a private school saves the state money, not everyone is happy that the children of relatively well-off middle class families are benefiting from charity.

The Labour Party pledged to remove the VAT exemption on private school fees, and could go further by scrapping business rates relief which is granted to independent schools owing to their charitable status.

The headmaster of the prestigious Stowe School said middle-class families who could have afforded to pay for private education a generation ago were now being “squeezed out because of affordability”.

Assisted places are usually awarded for a set period when a pupil joins a school at the age of 11, although many schools offer specific bursaries to sixth-form entrants. Last year, £420m was provided in means-tested, as opposed to merit-based, fee assistance for pupils at ISC schools; an increase of nearly £160m since 2011.

Special bursaries are available for pupils whose parents are in the armed forces, Church of England clergy, or who work for independent schools. There can also be favourable terms for second and subsequent siblings attending a school.

As a parent, you will need to do your homework, researching the websites of the schools and applying early. Pupils will normally sit an entrance exam and many parents prepare them for this by taking them to extracurricular classes and cramming schools specialising in helping pupils pass.

Top schools like Westminster School, founded in 1560 and earning its royal charter from Elizabeth I for offering help to 40 poor scholars, donate millions to help poorer children.

Westminster currently allocates £1.4m a year to bursaries and these can pay up to the full fees of £29,709 per year, plus uniform, equipment and other school expenditure.

Its website advises parents: “There are no exact financial criteria for bursaries but in judging a family’s needs, all income, essential expenditure, and all assets in savings, investments and property will be assessed.

Where, for example, a home is considered to be too large, in an expensive area or where excess equity could be released, a family may be expected to downsize or remortgage as necessary to release funds. It is also expected that savings in shares, Isas, other investments and equity in second homes will be released.

The school will then assess what level of bursary (between 10 per cent and 100 per cent of the fees) is needed.” Where parents live can also give children access to financial help as some bursaries were set up to benefit specific communities.

At Harrow School, where Winston Churchill studied, pupils who have lived in London boroughs, including Barnet, Brent, Camden, City of London, Ealing or Hammersmith, for more than two years may be eligible for financial help from the John Lyons Foundation.

The choice of royalty, Eton College, charges boarding fees of more than £42,000pa, but more than one in five pupils receive some form of financial assistance. The school, whose alumni includes countless prime ministers (David Cameron and Boris Johnson), Prince William and Prince Harry, will spend £6.5m this year to support 273 of its 1,300 pupils. The average bursary covers two-thirds of school fees. “We are proud of our bursary and scholarship provision which last year saw 74 boys receiving 100 per cent fee remission and a further 208 boys receiving a range of financial assistance,” says the college.

Eton aims to support one in four pupils in future, and is able to fund this from the school’s own resources and donations from its powerful network of alumni.

The son of a Windsor pharmacist won a scholarship to pay the full boarding fees for his education at Eton. His father said: “Applying for the scholarship was very easy indeed, he told the FT.

The information was readily available on Eton’s website. “At the time, so long as your child was under 10 years of age and had not been to a fee-paying school, you just had to contact Eton and ask to come and sit the scholarship test. “On the day, there were, I think, around 200 or so other children sitting it. It was a week or so before we were notified that they wanted him to come back again. At this follow-up day, there were around 6-10 children called back and they were involved in discussions rather than actual tests.

Our son was offered a junior scholarship a few days later.” The income of both parents was assessed and Eton covered all the school fees. “We supplied a detailed list of our income and expenses and Eton then set a contribution level.” The parents paid “a small contribution each term” of around £750 plus any expenses such as dinners, laundry, and society subscriptions. “Our son got A star and A grades in everything, plus a clutch of school awards and went on to read English at Cambridge.”

Word of the Day

Hedge Fund

A hedge fund is an official partnership of investors who pool money together to be guided by professional management firms, not unlike a mutual fund.

A hedge fund manager raises money from outside investors and then invests it according to whatever strategy he or she has promised to use. There are hedge funds that specialise in "long-only" equities, meaning they only buy common stock and never sell short. There are hedge funds that engage in private equity, which is the buying of entire privately held businesses, often taking them over, improving operations, and later sponsoring an initial public offering. There are hedge funds that trade junk bonds.

There are hedge funds that specialise in property and real estate. There are even hedge funds that put money to work in specialised asset classes such as patents and music rights. In other words, unlike a Mutual Fund or Unit Trust, hedge funds can invest in just about anything.

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook.

Many people tell me that they want to get into property, but don’t know where to start or which strategy to choose.

“Should I try residential or commercial”, they ask me, “single let buy-to-let or HMO’s?”.

How will I find the money for deposits, which area should I invest in, should I use a limited company? These are all questions I get asked by people wanting to become a professional property investor.

Firstly, let’s get rid of a few myths that may be holding you back from taking the first step.

So how can you get started right now?

My friends at Progressive are running several events to give you the opportunity to look at a number of strategies so you can decide which is best for you.

Multiple Streams of Property Income Event

• 6 - 8th December– Peterborough
• 17 - 19th January 2020 – Peterborough
• 24 - 26th January 2020 - Manchester

An excellent 3 day event covering multiple streams of income and strategies.

I have a limited number of complimentary tickets for these events. If you are interested, message me on Facebook or email me at [email protected]

Word of the Day

Commonhold

Commonhold is a tenure used for new build flats as an alternative to leasehold or share of freehold.

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook.

Women Need to Invest More Money to Secure Future Prosperity

The average British woman invests half the amount they spend on treats, such as clothes, beauty products, gym classes and eating out, says entrepreneur and former Apprentice contestant Jackie Fast.

Writing for City Matters, Jackie said they spend £211 per month on day-today treats, but only £98 on saving and investing.

Jackie did further research and found that women invest 40% less than men – 61p for every £1.

Whilst there are reasons why woman cannot always invest as much as their male counterparts, such as career breaks and the gender pay gap, women still need to up their game when it comes to money management.

As a former financial advisor, I frequently saw women leave the all household finances, such as mortgages, pensions and savings, to their male partner or husband.

This often led to disastrous consequences during times of divorce or widowhood. 

Women need to take control of their own finances, separate from the family budget. Finance is still not widely taught in schools, so it does require some effort.

See an independent financial adviser or better still learn more about finances through reading quality newspapers and books on money, attending seminars and courses or by taking a financial adviser course, as advised in one of my earlier Money Tips podcasts. 

Word of the Day

Derivatives

A derivative is an arrangement or product, for instance, as a future, option, or warrant, where the value derives from the value of an underlying asset, such as a commodity, currency, or security.

Due to major growth sector in financial markets the trade in so called derivatives has grown.

In the financial markets, share prices, bond prices, currency rates, interest rates and dividends go up and down, creating risk. Derivative products are financial products which are used to control risk or paradoxically exploit risk. It is also called financial economics.

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook.

When I was growing up, my mother was stingy by necessity and bought the cheapest food and clothes she could find. I was embarrassed by this, as in those days it was not cool to be frugal.

Fast forward to the present and it has become fashionable and even cool to be stingy, frugal and penny pinching.

Even the middle classes shops at discount stores like Aldi and Lidl, even if they do make the excuse that they are trying to find a cheeky little Bordeaux for £10 a bottle!

Shops like Primark, money saving comparison sites and online stores like Amazon have all boomed in the last few years.

In my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, and my Money Tips podcasts, I obviously promote saving and investment and earning more than you spend. However, a movement in America called F.I.R.E. takes stinginess to a whole new level.

The seeds of the FIRE movement can be traced back to the 1992 best-selling book Your Money or Your Life written by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, and the 2010 book Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker.

Followers of the F.I.R.E. or “financial independence” and “retire early”, movement, originating in the US, practice extreme forms of money saving to achieve their goal of early retirement and financial independence.

Devotees target savings of up to 70% of their annual income, which they invest for the long term. Their aim is to build a savings pot of 30 years’ worth of living expenses which they typically keep invested in low-cost tracker funds, withdrawing a maximum 4% every year in the hope they will never spend their capital.

After years subsisting on next to nothing, their thrifty habits become second nature by retirement that cheap lifestyle is easy to maintain. Some extreme F.I.R.E. disciples aspire to quit their jobs in their 30s or 40s, or at least attain the freedom of a greater work/life balance.

Whilst young people all over the internet rave about Fire, it is glorified and extreme retirement saving cleverly wrapped up as some sort of lifestyle movement.

Whilst I agree that young, and older, people need to start saving instead of spending on consumer goods, I feel that the flames of their fire may need a little more fuel to keep them warm for 30 or 40 years in retirement.

There are a number of obvious flaws in the F.I.R.E. plan.

To begin with, like me in my early working life, young people find it hard to save for retirement when they have to save to buy a property. This is made even harder when more than 50% of their disposable income goes towards rent. Those who do save, probably still live with their parents, who would naturally encourage them to put all their savings towards a deposit on a property, which they need now, rather than for a pension which they will need much later.

Secondly, when I got married and started a family life got tougher on one income with a mortgage and children, which is part of life for most people.

Finally, I think the “4 per cent rule” based on tracker fund returns is optimistic and outdated, not least because global growth is slowing and bond yields going south. Low-cost trackers are find when the market is rising and being tracked upwards, but the same tracking principle applies when the market is on one of its periodic downturns, which could come soon.

Having a goal to stash away 70% of your income to retire in your 40s, after 20 years of productive work, is not easy, but retiring in your 60s after 40 years of saving and investing is achievable.

Not everyone finds the lifelong frugal lifestyle attractive or practical. Some of the recommended money saving tactics they employ are impractical and time-consuming. Can you really walk everywhere, only shop for “yellow sticker” items on a limited range of foods just before closing time? Can you make your own clothes, which you would find hard to do at a cheaper price than the likes of Primark anyway, or live low-cost pulses for the rest of your life?

Retiring young and financially free is a great idea if you can live the life of your dreams, or at least a decent lifestyle with money to travel and enjoy. Without sufficient money, what sort of life will you have to look forward to for the next 40 years?

The financial services industry (where I once worked) and governments must make saving more attractive, less complicated and expensive if they are going to get millions of people over the retirement winning line by age 65, let along earlier, since the majority are not even saving 10% of income.

In reality, scrimping and saving alone will not make you rich, and will probably leave you feeling stressed and miserable. Think of yourself as a business, a money-making machine. Like any business, you need to generate income, capital and investment returns, as well as keeping an eye on the purse strings.

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook.

How many hours a week do you work?

The outspoken Chinese billionaire, co-founder of the online giant Alibaba supports a 9am to 9pm working day, six days a week.

While European countries moves towards shorter working hours – I’m not sure they can get much shorter in France - and more time off, Jack Ma calls for a "996 system", which he describes as an opportunity and a “blessing”.

Mr Ma recently wrote that without this formula, China's economy was "very likely to lose vitality and impetus".

Fellow superrich tech entrepreneur Richard Liu, the boss of ecommerce giant JD.com, supports Ma’s 12-hour-a-day system.

Mr Liu said decades of unprecedented economic growth in China had created more "slackers".

The two entrepreneurs do not appear to care much about their employees having a life outside of work, especially when you add up to two hours uncomfortable commuting time to his “996” formula, which probably ends up closer to 7-11-6.

The communist state has seen economic growth averaging 10% for more than 25 years, from the 1970s into the mid-2000s, which has since levelled out at around 6%, a rate that the U.S. and Europe would die for.

In 1998, Liu founded his company that became JD.com. His work ethic is well documented, saying he would set his alarm to wake him up every two hours to offer his customers a 24-hour, service.

He wrote: "JD in the last four, five years has not made any eliminations, so the number of staff has expanded rapidly, the number of people giving orders has grown and grown, while the those who are working have fallen.

"Instead, the number of slackers has rapidly grown! If this carries on, JD will have no hope! And the company will only be heartlessly kicked out of the market! Slackers are not my brothers!"

Following earlier business successes, including a website building company, Ma co-founded Alibaba, often referred to as “China's eBay”, in 1999 and has developed it into one of the world's biggest internet companies.

In my new book, I write about Jack Ma’s story of how he went from teacher to billionaire using other people’s money (OPM) and investment to grow his business.

Alibaba's market value is now approximately $490bn (£374bn), and Mr Ma's personal wealth is estimated at around $40bn.

Last year, Ma said he will step down as executive chairman in the near future.

Most driven business owners do not just work a 9 to 5 day, unlike their employees who do not have the same skin in the game.

However, there is an argument that working long hours can be counter-productive beyond a certain point. An U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study, Overtime and Extended Work Shifts: Recent Findings on Illnesses, Injuries, and Health Behaviors, found that working beyond eight hours a day posed health risks and offered little productivity.

When I was running a company with staff, the owners worked long hours, but we found that working into the night was unproductive, caused fatigue which led to more errors. Our best employees arrived on time, worked efficiently throughout the day getting their work done and left on time leaving a clear desk.

Some corporations may regard employees as expendable pawns in the game of business, or dismiss burnout as an occupational hazard. The most profitable companies invariably look after their staff with good pay and conditions which bring out the best in people.

Who says 8 hours is the standard working day anyway? Some people can comfortably put in a 10 or 12 hour day, especially when they are doing something they love. Many professionals, such as doctors and lawyers regularly pull 50 to 60 hour weeks. Not everyone has the same desire or stamina. Do whatever is right for you and look after your health and body, as without this you cannot work or enjoy life to the full.

6 Trump Tweets Wipe $500 billion off U.S. Stocks in one day

The stock market lost over $300 billion in value in 15 minutes due to six tweets from President Trump. He even joked about the Dow being down later in the day as investors lost over $500 billion on Friday.

The Dow Jones closed 623 points down on Friday following the Trump tweets calling Fed the “enemy” and imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports from September.

Forbes reported that in the course of 2 minutes on Friday President Trump unleashed 6 tweets about Fed Chairman Powell’s speech at the central bank’s Jackson Hole annual economic policy symposium and China announcing that it would impose 5% to 10% tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. exports to China. The stock market reacted immediately and intensely negatively to Trump’s first set of tweets sending the Dow Jones 30 Industrials down about 400 points in 15 minutes and 500 points within an hour.

While the Dow and other indexes were essentially flat to up a bit during and after the Fed Chairman’s speech, the 120 seconds of tweets erased over $300 billion in value in those 15 minutes and the markets fell further during the day. Trump followed up with 4 more tweets later in the day, one of which was joking about the Dow dropping 573 points as investors had lost almost half a trillion dollars. For the day over $500 billion in equity was erased.

That’s $83 billion per tweet!

As the trade war escalates like a high-stakes poker game, shares started to tumble around the world and could be the trigger for another black Monday when markets open in Asia and then Wall Street. London will be closed for a public holiday on Monday 26 August.

Although markets had settled after earlier steep falls, Money Tips predicted that this would not be the end of market turbulence.

Word of the Day

Correction

What Is a Correction?

According to Investopedia, ai the world of investments, a correction is generally defined as a decline of 10% or greater in the price of a security from its most recent peak. Corrections can happen anywhere including individual stocks, the indexes that follow stocks or sectors, the commodities and currency markets, or any asset that trades on an exchange. 

• A correction is a decline of 10% or greater in the price of a security, asset, or a financial market.
• Corrections can last anywhere from days to months, or even longer.
• While damaging in the short term, a correction can be healthy, adjusting overvalued asset prices and providing buying opportunities.

A Stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are triggered by panic or an event, as much as by underlying economic factors. They often follow speculative stock market bubbles or long bull runs.

Significant crashes occurred in 1929, 1987 and 2008, but smaller crashes have happened in between those dates.

If you would like to learn how to invest in the stock market and make money whether the market is going up or down, drop me a line on FB or at [email protected].

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook.

Listen to this jargon-busting episode.

Word of the Day

WTO

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

The WTO has over 160 members representing 98 per cent of world trade. Over 20 countries are seeking to join the WTO.

Despite MPs voting against a no deal in March 2019, it still remains the legal default for Brexit until some kind of withdrawal agreement is passed by Parliament. A no deal Brexit would mean we leave the EU, as well as the single market and customs union, and begin trading with the EU on WTO terms.

Under WTO rules, countries set their own import rules, so a no deal Brexit means that the government could, in theory, allow goods and services from all countries across the world to be imported into the UK without tariffs or quotas.

But it doesn’t mean other countries would have to do the same, meaning that UK exports to those countries would, in many cases, face tariffs and restrictions.

In any case, the government have said that under a no deal Brexit scenario, tariffs would still apply to 13% of goods (by value) imported into the UK for up to 12 months. During that time it will undertake a review on a long-term approach to tariffs. 

Another way of thinking about free trade is that the UK would be able to decide for itself how trade with other countries would operate. In the longer-term a no deal Brexit would give the UK the greatest agency over its future trade deals, although the exact terms would have to be agreed in negotiation with each individual country. These deals would likely take years to negotiate. Source: https://fullfact.org.

Formation

1 January 1995; 24 years ago

Type

International trade organization

Purpose

Reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade

Headquarters

Centre William Rappard, Geneva, Switzerland

Membership

164 member states

Official language

English, French, Spanish

Director-General

Roberto Azevêdo

Budget

197.2 million Swiss Francs (approx. 209 million US$) in 2018.

Staff

640

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook

Albert Einstein once said that compound interest was the most powerful force on earth.

What is compound interest?

In simple terms, compound interest is the effect of interest being earned, paid or on interest.

If you had £100 in the bank earning 7% interest per annum at the end of the year you would have £107. In year two, you are earning 7% on £105, not £100.

The Rule of 72

If you did not touch the interest or savings and the interest continued at 7% per annum how long would it be before your money doubled?

The answer is just over 10 years.

Look at it from another point of you, if you have a credit card debts rolling up at 20% per annum, how long would it be before your debt doubled in size? The answer is just over three years. However, let’s assume you are paying the minimum 2% off of your debt balance, and for the sake of this exercise we assume that effect is that you will be paying 18% on the debt. It would still only take four years before your debt has doubled in size. Furthermore, just paying the minimum payment on your balance would probably take decades before you could clear it.

I’ll give you a quick way to work out how long are some doubles based on an interest rate. It’s called the rule of 72.

If you divide the interest-rate that you are earning into 72 or take 72 and divide it by the interest-rate this will give you the approximate number of years will take to double.

In the above example, if you’re earning 7% per annum, seven into 72 is just over 10, therefore it will take just over 10 years before your money will double.

If I offered you the choice of either £1 million for one penny doubled every day for 28 days, which would you accept? The obvious answer is to take the £1 million, but you’d be wrong to take it, as one penny doubled and compounded over 28 days comes to £1,340,000. Amazing isn’t it. Day one, one penny, day two, two pennies and so on until day 27 it is £650000.

Word of the day

Compound interest and the Rule of 72.

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook

Universal credit is responsible for tenants on benefits falling behind with rent, according to the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).

The RLA said 54% of landlords had reported tenants on the benefits go into arrears in the last year.

The BBC reports that Debt charity Turn2Us warned universal credit will lead to "more rent arrears, more evictions and more homelessness".

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said landlords had reported seeing fewer claimants in arrears in the last year.

David Smith, policy director for the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), said it was taking too long for people struggling on universal credit to get the help they needed.

"The system only provides extra support once tenants are in rent arrears. Instead, more should be done to prevent tenants falling behind with their rent in the first place.

"Only then will landlords have the confidence they need that tenants being on universal credit does not pose a financial risk they are unable to shoulder."

Tenants have also experienced difficulty if finding landlords who will accept benefits claimants.

David Samson, welfare benefit specialist at Turn2Us, said the large number of people on universal credit in rent arrears was "a devastating example of the crippling issues with the benefit".

"The five week wait for universal credit married with the reality that it is just less generous than previous benefits will only conclude with more rent arrears, more evictions and more homelessness unless the government takes immediate action to fix some of the glaring problems."

Chris Town, a landlord in Yorkshire for 31 years, told the BBC that his tenants are "all worried about universal credit; they're terrified they're going to lose the benefit".

The experienced landlord said the introduction of the benefit since 2018 had caused many problems.

"You give people time to sort things out, but I'm waiting three months for arrears in some cases."

He added that there are problems getting access to information. "Up to now with housing benefit we've dealt with the local authority directly which means information was easy to access.

"Under universal credit it's not as accessible and you're not really sure what's going on."

Universal credit has replaced six benefits, including housing benefit, and merges them into one payment. It's gradually being rolled out around the country, but there are concerns that some claimants have seen their overall support cut.

RLA research revealed that 68% of landlords said there was a shortfall between the cost of rent and the amount paid in universal credit.

Are you a landlord with tenants on benefits or a tenant claiming Universal Credit? Money Tips would like to hear your views.

Word of the Day

Fiscal

A term used in public or government financial matters. Fiscal year, fiscal report.

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook.

Invest in yourself and your education.

At this time of year, thousands of students in the UK are getting ready to start university in October. Many will be apprehensive about leaving home for the first time, as well as accumulating a large amount of debt at the end of the course.

The average student debt for tuition fees and expenses is now around £50,000, which can be daunting for any young person starting out in life.

It should really be remembered, however, that you are not paying for your tuition upfront and you do not start repaying the loan (by salary deduction) until you have reached a salary of £25,725 per annum.

Studying gives you many advantages in life and greatly enhances your earnings potential and career prospects.

• Graduates are twice as likely to get a job as nongraduates.
• The average starting salary for a graduate is now £34,000, £10,000 more than a non-graduate, and this gap will increase as the person lacking in education and skills falls behind.

I once heard a figure in America that every year spent in further higher education was worth £200,000 in additional lifetime earnings. Warren Buffett once asked students how much they would sell their lifetime earnings for right now, and predicted that they would sell for too little.

When you use debt to invest in yourself, you are investing in and leveraging your future earnings potential. Your earnings and career development will be boosted by any further education, whether it be academic or vocational.

When I was running a vocational college, I realised that there are thousands of degree and vocational or apprenticeship courses available in the UK at very reasonable, and sometimes zero, cost to the student. Despite being offered a free vocational course or an NVQ, some students still couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed in the morning and study. Then they complained that there was “no opportunity” in this country!

If you want to reduce your debt or self-pay, you can also do a degree at a private college for far less than a university, or save a fortune by studying at a local university rather than packing off to other side of the country.

Whatever you decide to do, there is probably no greater investment, than an investment in yourself, and you should never stop learning.

It’s never too late to study, whether this be for short-term courses to improve your skills, or going back to university, as I did, to finish a degree or take a masters.

Word of the Day

Dividend or Divi.

When you own a share in a business, the board of directors of the company can declare a dividend, or share of the profits, to the shareholders who are the owners of the company.

Used in another context, you could say that education will pay “dividends” in your life.

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook.