STUDENTJOB BLOG

The Real Living Wage is £13.45 an hour outside London and £14.80 in the capital. This is the rate most university students earn when taking up part-time jobs in the summer, if they are lucky enough to find them. If you work for eight weeks full-time at the London rate, you would earn just over £3,740 before tax and National Insurance, which equals about £3,200 take-home.

University-funded internships as part of schemes such as the Sussex Student Hub offer a salary of at least £3,026 for a placement covering a full term. City finance internships are more generous, but again, the devil's in the detail, the placements tend to be for ten to twelve weeks at £3,750 to £5,000 a month.

At first, that number seems quite generous. Then reality kicks in. That money has to cover Wimbledon tickets, your friend’s wedding in July, a graduation gift for your older sibling, and a few new work outfits. Ideally, you’d also like to have some savings left before term starts again.

One of the easiest traps to fall into is seeing your summer earnings as money to spend at the end of summer rather than money to start planning with from day one. Reaching your £150 gifting budget by early June can make the rest of the summer feel a lot less financially stressful. Instead of scrambling to put a last-minute gift on your credit card, you can plan ahead and choose something the recipient will genuinely appreciate.

Where does your summer income actually go?

Rent during the summer varies wildly. There are some students who stay home and hoard everything. Some are living in student housing for half rent, taking £400 to £600 each month. The transport, food and social activities will add a further £400–600, depending on where you are based and whether you are in London or not.

For the majority of students working summer jobs, that means they can spend about £150 to £300 on presents without pushing their finances too hard. That money has to carry other

burdens too: Father's Day on 21 June, a friend's birthday during late June or July, maybe a leaving present for someone going off somewhere better than here, a token of gratitude for someone overseeing work experience.

The ones who still have pennies to spend by August aren’t always as well-off, they are just generally more creative about blurring the edges of how or what you pay for.

Should you give vouchers instead of cash?

A £20 or £30 voucher linked to a brand the recipient already buys from comes across as more considerate than the same value cash. Your coffee shop mate will spend a Costa voucher more quickly and happily than a £20 note. We all know a graduate who needs a retailer voucher or an experience more than they need loose change.

On Father's Day, a Screwfix voucher or a Wagamama voucher often beats a generic gift. The person you give it to chooses what they want, but within a range of their interest. There's no guessing involved.

Input unlimited vouchers in the UK, work with all of the voucher specialists such as giftvouchers. Household name brands now share space with dining and experience vouchers at co.uk, which is especially important for students when one €20 voucher to the right place will get you further than the same €20 through a split Amazon basket.

What's the HMRC rule employers often forget to mention?

Under HMRC's trivial benefits rules, your employer can give you a gift card or voucher worth up to £50 (including VAT) without you or the company having to pay Income Tax or National Insurance on it. The voucher must not be exchanged for cash, used as payment for work, or form part of any contractual agreement.

Why is this rule important when you have graduates who will be starting their salaried jobs in

September? Employers aren't forced to apply that rule: they choose to. To receive a great welcome voucher in your onboarding pack is not a scale. The existence of this exemption and the fact that employers want to warmly welcome new staff on board without the associated payroll cost are why vouchers are included in onboarding packs.

This exemption does exist and operates effectively, which is why platforms like giftvouchers.co.uk are included in many onboarding packs for small and medium employers. The £50 limit is absolute. A £50.01 voucher has the entire exemption lost. Directors of close companies are limited to £300 in trivial benefits in a tax year.

How should you plan your summer gifting budget?

Once you know what you'll be earning over the summer, it's a good time to set a gifting budget in early June. A £20 or £30 voucher for a shop they already love often seems far more considerate than a slapdash online order made the night before. Unsurprisingly, ties also aren't the ideal present: dining vouchers and DIY shop vouchers are a much more successful option for Father's Day on 21 June than last-minute purchases.

According to the Gift Card & Voucher Association, the UK market is at around £7bn, and for the first time in 2024, digital vouchers have edged out physical cards across a complete year as 'the' way to send money with a purpose. The summer wages go a long way when the gifting strategy kicks off with enough time and precisely tailored recipients out to brands that they have a genuine interest in.

That's the difference here between summer being generous and summer being stingy.