--- title: "Jersey families raid pensions and remortgage homes to fund university" url: https://www.nsfw.info/jersey-families-raid-pensions-remortgage-homes-university/ published: 2026-11-02T07:30:47+00:00 modified: 2026-11-02T07:30:47+00:00 author: "Chief Editor" categories: ["Government"] image: https://www.nsfw.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/jersey-families-raid-pensions-remortgage-homes-university-1024x572.webp summary: "A Jersey student group warns that families are remortgaging homes and drawing on pensions to cover university costs, calling for a full overhaul of higher-educa" publisher: NSFW (https://www.nsfw.info) --- # Jersey families raid pensions and remortgage homes to fund university **In brief:** The Jersey Student Loan Support Group is urging a wholesale reform of the island’s university funding system, warning that families are remortgaging homes and drawing on pensions to bridge the gap between means-tested grants and actual university costs. With no public student-loan scheme in place, the group says financial pressure is already shaping which degrees young Islanders can realistically pursue. ## Families Bearing the Brunt The picture painted by the Jersey Student Loan Support Group in its submission to the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel is not a comfortable one. In a survey of families navigating higher-education funding, 46.7% of respondents said they had taken on extra work to cover shortfalls. Almost a third, 32.7%, had borrowed money or remortgaged their homes, and 26.2% were dipping into pensions to keep their children in lecture halls. These are not abstract statistics. They represent parents in Jersey, Channel Islands, quietly dismantling their financial futures so that their children can access the same opportunities available to students elsewhere in the British Isles, where government-backed loan schemes exist as a matter of course. Jersey has no such scheme, meaning the gap between what means-tested grants provide and what university actually costs falls squarely on families. Bailiwick Express reports that freedom-of-information figures cited in the group’s submission show that 496 of the 1,025 undergraduate students funded in 2025/26 received help with tuition fees only, leaving nearly half of all funded students without any government support for living costs. That is a striking number, and not one the Government of Jersey should be particularly proud of. ## Grants That Don’t Quite Reach The group acknowledged that the Education Minister has recognised the need for annual grant adjustments, but argued this does little to repair the damage done by years without inflation-linked increases. The recent 3.4% rise has not gone down well with those relying on it: 78.6% of survey respondents considered it insufficient to meet the real costs of studying away from the island. A specific concern flagged in the submission is the proposed gap between maximum maintenance grants for students studying locally and those studying off-island in 2027/28. The figures are £9,140 and £9,780 respectively, a difference of £640. The group argues this fails to account for the genuine additional costs of off-island accommodation, utilities and travel. As the submission puts it, the arrangement “turns a state support mechanism into an unfair tier system, where a student’s career options and lifelong horizons are dictated by their family’s balance sheet rather than their academic talent and hard work.” It is a pointed observation. Jersey prides itself on meritocracy and opportunity, yet the current structure effectively means that two students of identical ability may end up on very different paths depending on what their parents can afford to subsidise. ## What the Group Is Asking For The Jersey Student Loan Support Group’s recommendations are broad and, in some cases, long overdue. They include raising the income threshold at which grants begin to reduce, reviewing travel and other allowances, expanding postgraduate support, and removing income barriers to specialist equipment for disabled students. The group also wants a government-backed rental guarantor scheme, assistance with placement expenses, and the establishment of an independent Jersey Student Union. Families supporting two children at university simultaneously receive a particular mention. The submission calls for an adjustment to household-income assessments in such cases, recognising that the financial strain of concurrent university costs is not currently reflected in how grants are calculated. Overarching all of this is a call for the Scrutiny Panel to lead a proper review, involving students and parents, to develop a funding model that is genuinely fit for purpose. Given that the submission is directed at the Budget 2027 to 2030 review, there is at least a window of opportunity for the Government to act before another cohort of families finds itself remortgaging the family home to fund a history degree. ## The NSFW Perspective There is something quietly absurd about a jurisdiction that manages billions in financial services, hosts some of the wealthiest individuals in Europe, and yet leaves ordinary families raiding their pension pots to send their children to university. Jersey is not a poor island. It is, however, an island where the gap between its considerable wealth and the lived experience of middle-income families can be startlingly wide. The Government of Jersey has had ample time to address higher-education funding in a meaningful way. The absence of any student-loan mechanism is not an oversight, it is a policy choice, and one that disproportionately affects families who earn too much to qualify for full grants but not enough to absorb the full cost of university without financial pain. The Scrutiny Panel would do well to treat this submission seriously, rather than filing it alongside the other good ideas that never quite made it into a budget. *Source: [Bailiwick Express](https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/news/jersey-families-remortgage-homes-and-raid-pensions-to-fund-university)*