Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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75. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if students who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic will be pushed out of SUSI for accepting the pandemic unemployment payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27377/21]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I want to ask the Minister about students who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic and who now believe they will be pushed out of SUSI for accepting the pandemic unemployment payment. Will the Minister please clear this up because it is causing huge concern?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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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.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister. I know he agrees it is unacceptable that students would be pushed out and denied SUSI grants because they accepted the pandemic unemployment payment. I would treat it as an exceptional needs payment. Nobody should be penalised for accepting the pandemic unemployment payment, particularly not working students who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. This is where equality comes into it. If these students were working as normal or under the employment wage subsidy scheme they would be entitled to deduct holiday earnings of €4,500 when applying to SUSI. At the very least, this deduction should be applied to the pandemic unemployment payment for students. At a committee meeting, I highlighted to the Minister that I thought it was strange the demand for SUSI this year was in line with 2019 despite the State being in lockdown for much of the year and so many people being out of work. This only adds up if many other students will be pushed out of qualifying for SUSI because of accepting the pandemic unemployment payment when they lost their employment.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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So far, what we are seeing is a significant number of applicants being granted the SUSI grants. We are monitoring this on a weekly basis and we will continue to monitor it. I will reflect on the point the Deputy has made on the holiday earnings disregard. There may be something in it should the need arise as we see the system develop. We have to have a consistency of approach in terms of one social welfare payment with another. Otherwise, there would be a gross unfairness to students who receive other social welfare benefits.

We have the change of circumstances mechanism. More than 10,000 applicants declared a change of circumstance in the past year. Of these, 40% related to Covid-19. The scheme has shown flexibility in addressing these issues. For the next academic year, applications will be assessed on the gross income from all sources for January to December. However, and this is crucial, if applicants or family members experienced a change in circumstances during 2021 they can apply for the SUSI application to be assessed or reassessed under the change of circumstances mechanism. Such a change in circumstances would include perhaps no longer being in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment because a part-time job has come back as the hospitality, retail and other sectors open. Such a change in circumstance would have to continue for the duration of the course or the foreseeable future. We are monitoring this on a weekly basis and I will reflect on the Deputy's points.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Would the situation of this mother be considered a change of circumstances? She has three boys on the pandemic unemployment payment who are still in college and living at home. They are in Maynooth, Dublin and Sligo. If the pandemic unemployment payment is not disregarded it will push her over the threshold and she will not be able to take out a loan for €30,000 to pay for their fees and accommodation. We must also remember that an awful lot of students have lost money due to accommodation. Will this be taken into consideration when applying to SUSI? I spoke to a mother yesterday who paid €4,500 for absolutely nothing with regard to accommodation. Will there be flexibility? If the Minister were to give flexibility to SUSI to be able to respond to these cases, we would be able to ensure the barriers preventing access to further education were removed.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am satisfied, without getting into the individual case as I do not have all of the details, that the legislation and regulations allow for a change of circumstance where students or families were receiving, to use the Deputy's phrase, an exceptional payment for a period of time during the pandemic and, due to work resuming or changes, they are no longer receiving that payment. They need to be able to tell SUSI and SUSI needs to be able to take it into consideration. I want the Deputy to know we monitor on a weekly basis how the SUSI scheme is going for the year. We will continue to do this. I am willing to act if an anomaly or difficulty arises. So far, what I am seeing is that many of the people applying are being granted a payment and there is a change of circumstances mechanism in place.