Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very proud that we live in a country where we have provided such significant income support to all people who lost jobs, including students. Some of the commentary, certainly not from Deputy Conway-Walsh but from some elements in recent weeks and months, suggesting it was inappropriate and that students should not be claiming the pandemic unemployment payment shows a huge lack of understanding of the impact this pandemic has had on young people and people of all ages.

As Deputy Conway-Walsh is aware, the student support scheme was established in 2012. It is a vital support for people accessing third level. Almost 101,000 applications were received by SUSI for grant support in the 2020 to 2021 academic year with just over 79,000 applications being assessed as eligible for grant support. The projected total cost for this year is €370 million. Applications for the 2021 to 2022 academic year are now open and to date we have received 46,000 applications. I am pleased to say that 28,500 of these applications have now been assessed and 26,500 have been approved for support. This is an early indication of the very high success rate of people applying and being deemed eligible.

With regard specifically to the pandemic unemployment payment, this has been treated as reckonable income since it was introduced in March 2020. This is not a new development. Income from the Covid-19 payment has the same standing and is treated in a similar fashion to other Department of Social Protection payments, such as jobseeker's benefit or jobseeker's allowance. It is very important there is a consistency of approach for all students. We cannot decide one student getting one social welfare payment is more or less important or entitled than somebody else. A student or family on jobseeker's benefit, for example, or on jobseeker's allowance or the one-parent family benefit, must be treated the same as a student for family on the pandemic unemployment payment. However, I want to say we have a change of circumstance mechanism for students or families who had been receiving the pandemic unemployment payment, and who will not be in future as the economy reopens, to tell the SUSI system there has been a change of circumstance. I will expand on this later.

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