Ms Jacinta Stewart:

I thank the members of the joint committee for the invitation. SUSI wants to award grants to students. I will make a short presentation on current issues and the efforts we are making to deal with them.

SUSI opened the new grant application scheme on Monday, 11 June 2012, with a closing date of 31 August. Students applying for a new grant filled in an on line application form. At the closing date of 31 August, 56,935 applications had been received. We have, however, continued to receive applications beyond the closing date. Over 9,000 applications have been received since. Currently, the rate is approximately 200 a week.

SUSI includes a stringent means test to discover if a student is eligible for a grant. Following the on-line application, each applicant was sent a pack by post, with a personalised check list, requesting a set of documents. The SUSI figures as of 12 November are as follows: 20,350 applications are now complete at award stage; 25,310 are being processed; while documentation is awaited from 20,500 students.

I will describe how the system works. Students complete an on-line application form and then each applicant is sent a pack by post containing a personalised check list and requesting a set of documents. There are two parts to the process. The first is to review the pack and ensure is it complete and the documentation is returned to SUSI. The second is to assess the completed application. In order to ensure the pack is complete, SUSI has provided a support service which has, to date, dealt with 175,000 telephone calls and 35,000 e-mails.

In the early stages of the process students who had applied early submitted complete packs. As we moved towards the closing date of 31 August, it was noticeable that a number of the packs from later applicants were incomplete. By incomplete I mean, for example, a failure to sign the declaration form or the final course acceptance form; submitting income details for the wrong year; only submitting supporting documents for part of the year; students under the age of 23 years failing to supply parent information.

We had been assessing packs at the rate of 800 a day, which figure then increased to 1,300. By the end of next week it will be 1,900 a day. These are the numbers of submitted documents being assessed. At the assessment stage of the process, we are assessing 750 packs a day but want to move to 1,150 a day. The system is working, but we need it to work faster. We have taken a number of measures to make the process work faster. We have scaled up the staffing of the support desk, in line with the volume of calls received. At support and review stage, staff numbers have been increased from 39 to 79. We have assigned more staff to the assessment unit. At assessment and payment stage, the number of staff has been increased from 55 to 96, with ten further staff due to start next Monday. We have increased text and e-mail communications to encourage those whose responses are awaited to contact us and provide the correct documentation. We are making reminder telephone calls to students to request that they submit their final course acceptance form. We have posted the ten top reasons for incomplete documentation packs. These include reminders to supply the long form birth certificate and a copy of a passport must be certified by a member of An Garda Síochána or a Commissioner for Oaths. We have a representative on boards.ie to address issues raised by applicants through this forum.

SUSI has taken the following measures to speed up the process for the next academic year: we have agreed with the CAO that students may opt in to allow it to pass course details to SUSI. We are working with the Revenue Commissioners to explore methods of data sharing, particularly P21 details. These discussions are at an advanced stage. We are in early stage discussions with the Department of Social Protection to explore the issue of access to social welfare payment data. We will continue to expand the SUSI information campaign which, to date, has included working with the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, the Union of Students of Ireland and the citizens information service centres to enable them to assist students in the process.

We will continue and expand the SUSI information campaign which to date has included working with the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, the Union of Students of Ireland and the Citizens Information Service centres to enable them to assist students with the process. We have also developed a tutorial for schools. We will put in place a tracking system for the next academic year in order that students can monitor exactly at what stage their applications are in the process.

To get a student grant, students and their families go through a very complex process involving a stringent means test that has 15 different financial indicators. Students must also provide proofs, for example, details of their nationality, proof they are resident in this country, proof of independence if they are not living at home and proof of previous education. We need to get the message out that a student when applying for a grant must supply all the documents requested in one go. The measures already taken will ensure the system will work further. This is not simply a grant, it is a means-tested grant. It is a complex process. We want to help the students get through the process and to get the documents back to us as soon as possible in order that we can access their grant application. We want to pay the students as soon as possible. The system is working and we will make it work faster. All the measures we have listed will be taken and implemented by next year and that will make a huge difference to the future student grant experience.