Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 398: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the circumstances and the criteria whereby an application for maintenance grant for the 2009-2010 academic year can be re-assessed when there has been an adverse change in reckonable income since the application was first lodged; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19170/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The means test for an application under the student grant schemes is normally based on income in the last full financial year. Therefore, eligibility for a student grant for the academic year 2009/10 will be assessed on income from the 2008 financial year.

However, if there has been a permanent change of circumstances at any time during the period 1st of January 2009 to the last term of the 2009/10 academic year which may affect reckonable income, then eligibility for the grant may be re-assessed to reflect those changed circumstances.

Where a dependent student's parent experiences a permanent change in income level, for example, through a reduction in working hours or unemployment, then they may apply to their local authority or VEC to have their eligibility for a grant assessed on the basis of the new income level.