Back when we were applying for secondary places for our respective DDs, a colleague and I joked about having them taken into care, in order to move them into pole position for their favoured comprehensive school, should they flunk the 11+. (Note: DD did. She was allocated a school the other side of the borough that we hadn't even considered. She was fine. At no point during her year there did the words, If only we'd put you up for adoption, the fact that this year we were too far away from our catchment school for you to get a place would have been irrelevant never crossed my lips ).

One hopes this is a case of, Only in America :

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/guardianship-surrendering-parents-divide-us-university-leaders?utm_source=THE+Website+Users&utm_campaign=50adc04000-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_08_01_02_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_daa7e51487-50adc04000-66200765




The case of US parents surrendering guardianship of their children to help them afford university is revealing high-level fault lines within academia over blame and duty in the country’s growing student debt crisis.

The situation involves at least two dozen instances in which parents in the Chicago area signed over guardianship of their teenagers to a friend or relative, legally cutting financial ties so the students would become eligible for federal, state and university aid and scholarships.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

The UK equivalent would presumably be demonstrating estrangement from parents when applying for student finance. Have a read around that and ask yourself whether you think anyone plays the system .

In NZ students were known to make marriages of convenience in order to improve their funding situation. An acquaintance married his cousin and then got an annulment after university. When officialdom caught on they denied annulments and insisted on full divorce proceedings. Don’t know if this dodge still works though.

This isnt new.
When I was at University in the 1980's the maintenance grant was means tested and I knew of people who took legal action to be officially estranged from their parents in order to obtain the full grant.
I didn't qualify for the grant but my parents couldn't afford to give me what they were deemed to be able to so things were pretty tight.
Estrangement is drastic but I can see how some people feel desperate.
No doubt there are others who are 'playing the system'.

When my son was at Uni,the was the only one in his (large) circle of friends who had to have a job throughout his degree. Everyone else received the maximum loan because either their parents were divorced/retired/unemployed or they lived at a different address or some other reason. We on the other hand, still married and both working, despite having two young children at full time nursery (costing a fortune) were deemed to be able to support him. We did what we could but he had to work. Maybe we should get divorced when the younger ones go to uni, especially when theyll be there together!!

Our daughter now in 2nd year, is also one of very few, who was entitled to the minimum loan, and also the only one in her year who has worked since gcse, has worked full time throughout the summer, and has secured 15 hours a week for the same company for the rest of her term time at uni. There are so many of her huge affluent circle, who have been allocated full quota, on the basis of divorce/estrangement etc. One girl’s parents actually managed to get a full bursary for 5 years as her mum was divorcing, and they claimed the dad was not supporting them. Literally the day she left school, they both acquired brand new cars, moved to a much bigger house, and went to Hawaii for a month. Turned out the dad was an ex-con, so we made of that what anyone would! Yes corruption like this is rife..sadly not only America.

Things have always been thus. When I was at uni over thirty years ago, a friend of mine received a full grant because her parents were divorced and her mum didn't earn much. Her dad bought her a house and gave her money too. But I did benefit, because she rented me a room for a very low rent!