When Kian Banks starts the second year of his history and politics degree next month, his first priority is to knuckle down and study. The first person in his family to go to university, and with ambitions to become a teacher, he has high hopes for his degree. Only one thing is getting in the way: money.
With no financial support from his parents, uncertain hopes of a job and no additional help from his university in north-west England, he is budgeting to live off a government maintenance loan of £9,706 next year. As the costs of energy, rent and food escalate, he knows it falls short of what he needs to survive.
“I’m scared,” Banks says from his parents’ house in Wolverhampton. “I fear if I have to work again week on week like last year I won’t be in a position to leave university and say I’ve done the best I can.”
