Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Not to surprise the Deputy, but I am doing more for students than she has asked me to do. Not only are we going to put in a disregard of €4,500, because full-time students are no longer entitled to the PUP from September, if they apply for the change of circumstances, that will mean their application will be reassessed without their PUP payment being calculated as part of it. SUSI has kept on additional staff. The Deputy probably knows that SUSI takes on staff for certain periods. It has extended that period to deal more students who will use the change of circumstances this year. The change of circumstances is a well-established procedure. We have seen that it can operate at scale. For example, last year or this current year, more than 10,000 applicants declared a change in circumstance. Approximately 40% of those were related to Covid-19. However, I take the Deputy’s point about this needing to be simple and straightforward for students. It needs to be well-publicised and well-advertised. I will arrange for SUSI to provide a briefing for Oireachtas Members on this and, most importantly, to communicate directly with students, through student unions, their websites, etc, on how they can available of this. However, I genuinely believe that the change in circumstances route will address the issue the Deputy highlighted.

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