Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection

Student Grant Application System: Discussion with SUSI

12:10 pm

Photo of Marie MoloneyMarie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. While I acknowledge they are coming under fire, that is the job to which they signed up, like the rest of us present, and the questions must be asked. I must take issue with the witnesses with regard to the loss of documents and the statement that SUSI has received one complaint. A number of people approached me stating they had submitted all their documents but that two full months after so doing, they received a letter requesting precisely the same items they had sent in previously. The person concerned had actually registered her pack, as had a number of her friends, and they approached me together with their registered letter slips. I spent an entire morning tracking those registered letters, only to find they went to Dublin and were redirected to Abtran in Cork. The last place I could find a record of them was in the sorting office in Cork. I was then obliged to approach the postmaster to track them to this company Abtran, where they were signed for by an individual. Obviously, one cannot give names at this meeting. I rang SUSI, which, I am sorry to be obliged to say, was most unhelpful. First, its representatives would not speak to me. I deal with housing grants, medical cards, agricultural grants and social welfare payments, and every office I contact will speak to me as a public representative, with the exception of SUSI. Its representative stated he could not speak to me, whereupon I asked to speak to his supervisor. Eventually, after arguing on the telephone - as Ms Stewart has stated, the conversation is recorded and she should go back and listen to it - I got to speak to a supervisor, whom I also will not name, as members are not allowed to use names. The supervisor also was most unhelpful and kept telling me to tell the student to send in the application again.

This is not good enough in the case of people who have sent in all their documentation, have registered them to ensure they got there and who have them signed for by an individual. Those documents got to SUSI, which lost them and there are no two ways about it. This simply is not good enough. I acknowledge the application form suggests the applicants should photocopy everything, but human nature being the way it is, many people put original documents into an envelope without having photocopied them. They are now running around trying to find P21 forms again Incidentally, P60 forms cannot be reissued as they can only be issued once. Consequently, people are in an awful state.

I have a few other points to make. As for the self-employed people who sent in their self-assessments and their notice of assessment from the tax office, this is not good enough for SUSI. It now seeks a letter from their accountants stating they are self-employed. I cannot understand this as it is quite evident that they are self-employed, yet this is not good enough. Moreover, I have encountered cases of students who are pulling out of college. While I acknowledge Ms Stewart will state the authority does not wish them to do that - of course it does not - SUSI should try to hurry up the process for such individuals because they will pull out.

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