Financial help and advice
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Some students manage financially at University - they either have enough money of their own or from their parents to easily get by (lucky sods). Not all students are in this position and it can be tough when you are struggling with money and your friends all seem to have bucket loads! You can find yourself digging your way into debt because you don’t want to miss out.
Some students get into trouble because they don’t know how to manage money. They are used to any money they have being theirs to spend on what they want because their parents buy the food shopping, household goods, laundry, etc. There are of course all the usual extreme case stories of students blowing their entire student loan in a week – having a fabulous new wardrobe but no money to live on! However, debt can also slowly creep up on you because “you’ll just pop it on the credit card and pay it off next month” and next month you pay a bit off but pop another few little bits on.
Others find coming to university a challenge as they have sacrificed a wage to come to university and are struggling to manage a new, lower budget?
Whatever your situation, you will find help and support at UCLan. In the Student’s Union the SU Advice Centre has trained staff to help you from planning a budget to managing debts.
The SU Advisors can help you check if you are claiming all the benefits you are entitled including; students loans, Access to Learning Fund, child tax credits, other government benefits and more.
There are self-help packs to help you manage you finances are available from the SU Advice Centre. Even if you are managing now you might be able to make you r money go a bit further and it could help you limit your chances of getting into debt in the future.
You will also find lots of useful advice and links to resources to help you manage you fiancés on the SU and UCLan web pages.