Liam Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 516: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her Department has instructed local authorities and vocational education committees to include matured SSIAs as reckonable income in respect of grant applications in view of the fact that student grants were always based on reckonable income for the previous financial year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32693/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Since SSIAs were introduced, the amount of income to be included in respect of them is the government grant earned on the savings in the relevant tax year plus, in the case of savings accounts, the gross interest earned in the relevant tax year, and, in the case of investment accounts, the investment profit earned in the relevant tax year. Investment losses sustained in the relevant tax year are deductible.

The same position has long applied to interest earned on similar savings products, including post office savings certificates, life assurance bonds etc. Thus the treatment of SSIAs is consistent with the traditional treatment of other similar investments.

Thus in applying for a grant for the 06/07 academic year, the only income that has to be declared in respect of SSIAs is the government grant earned on the SSIA in the 2005 tax year, plus in the case of savings accounts, the gross interest earned in the 2005 tax year, and, in the case of investment accounts, the investment profit earned in the 2005 tax year.