Are you sure about this? Is there any other source for a freeze other than your letter? Most adverts I see for PhD positions with attached EPSRC stipend state that it is reviewed annually and subject to inflationary variation, and that has been the case up until this year, and there doesn't seem to be any indication from a quick google search that they intend not to review it annually in the coming years.

There is no end as to how pissed off I'll be if they decide to cut the inflationary variation the year I start... and they'll probably resume it the year I finish! ARGH!

I despise the UK sometimes.

Well it's a NERC funded post I have not EPSRC but I think all the research councils have the same regulations with money. I haven't looked into it any further but it does have the years listed with the same amount of money next to each, but I'm sure it is reviewed annually. But it wouldn't surprise me if it is frozen for the next couple of years! We can live in hope I guess!

My letter says that the minimum stipend i will receive is £13,590 (doesn't specify exactly what they will give, but it is probably the minimum) but also says that this will increase each year. Mine is from EPSRC.

Ah, that's a bit less scary!

They're basically saying you're receive the minimum stipend each year, and at the moment that's £13,590! Hopefully you'll get an updated letter next year with updated minimum stipends!

I thought you meant that your letter made it clear that the minimum stipend is frozen across your programme duration. Bit a relief.

I take it all back. I received my monthly stipend installment today (I don't know why - it's usually the end of the month) and it HAS gone up! By the grand total of ......drumroll........38p.

Ooooh, what *shall* I spend it on?! ;)

I'd say either a very small down-payment on a house, or maybe 38 penny sweets, i would go for the milkshake penny sweets, that's healthy right? it is shaped like a milk bottle after all, maybe the penny sweet eggs, a good alternative to a real breakfast

Aw man you've put me right in the mood for those now and I don't know where I can get them!

I think penny sweets now cost 2p now though! Shocking I know!

I think the only house for which that could be a down-payment would be one to scale with the milkshake penny sweets!

Perhaps I should put the extra 38p aside each month and do something special with the £4.56 at the end of the academic year...:-)

Hi guys,
        I asked my uni finance people what the increment would be this year and was told there was none. At first I thought it might be because I am on charity funding but I did a little digging and the decision was actually made last November:

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/researchcareers/Feesandstipends2011-12letter.pdf

What annoyed me was not so much that we are not getting an increase (although I am annoyed as everyone in my department thought it was going to happen) but that the decision was made so long ago and nobody announced it properly.
So its basically a pay cut of just over 5% (RPI as CPI is a con that doesn't include housing costs)

Didn't stop the university putting rents up by over 6%!!

Yes, that was the thing that got to me. I only found out because I was actively digging around to find out what the increment would be. I think it would have been a basic courtesy to inform students.

My funding isn't from one of the mainstream research councils but the stipend is set in line with the RCUK guidelines. That said, it's coming from a programme grant that was awarded a prior to the RCUK decision, so presumably there must have been money in the programme grant set aside for yearly increments. I don't think I'd have the nerve to ask though:$

Like I said earlier, it's not about the actual sum, it's more the principle!

I am in exactly the same situation, as in my funding is from a charity that gives one position each year in each of a group of university's. However I asked around and most people seem to think that money is not so much set aside as a block sum but the university bills the charity each year. The amount given is therefore set by the university, my supervisor said he could ask the charity if they could help but i am in the same mindset as you in that I dont really want to say anything as it might be misinterpreted.