Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. The student support scheme is a critical financial support for students participating in higher education. As of earlier this week, Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, had received almost 74,000 applications from students. To date, almost 53,500 applications have been assessed, with more than 47,000 deemed as eligible for support for the next academic year. As in any statutory scheme, a core principle is that there is a consistency of approach and equitable treatment for applicants as part of the means assessment process. This applies to people who are dependent on different types of social protection payments. The pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, has been treated as reckonable income since it was introduced in March 2020. Income from the Covid-19 payment, therefore, 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. This means that a student or family on the PUP should be treated in the same way as a student or family who are dependent on jobseeker's benefit or allowance.

The holiday earnings disregard does not apply to these social protection payments and, therefore, it would not be fair, equitable or, possibly, legal to apply a different approach to the PUP. However, an important feature of the scheme is the change of circumstance provision. If an applicant has experienced a change of circumstances during 2021, they can apply to SUSI for their application to be assessed or re-assessed under a change of circumstances. Such a change in circumstances will clearly include no longer being in receipt of the PUP. Students will no longer be able to receive the payment from early September, in line with normal circumstances where students do not qualify for unemployment payments while at college. Therefore, no students will miss out on the SUSI grant as a result of them being in receipt of the PUP because they will not be receiving it from September onwards. I know entirely what the Deputy is trying to get at. It is a very important point that she is trying to highlight, in not wanting someone to have lost out because they received the PUP. The fact, though, that a student will not be in a position to receive the PUP from September means they will qualify under the change of circumstances for the payment to be disregarded.

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