Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason it is taking so long to process college grant applications to Student Universal Support Ireland, in some cases up to four months since applications were submitted. [47989/12]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the provisions, being made to clear the backlog of 52,430 claims to Student Universal Support Ireland for third level grants; the way such a backlog, was allowed to build up; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48088/12]

Arthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason for the delay in grant applications being processed through the new Student Universal Support Ireland website system; the number of these grants that are being held up due to delays by the applicant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48108/12]

Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the on-going delays in the processing of grant applications by Students Universal Support Ireland; if he will provide figures on the current number of cases with SUSI; the number of applications that have been processed to date; the average processing time for same; the way these figures compare to the previous system; if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties applicants are having in securing accurate information on the status of their application and the hardship these delays and inaccurate information are causing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48322/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 334, 339, 340 and 363 together.

As the Deputy may be aware, all new applications for the 2012/13 academic year are being processed and paid by SUSI, the new centralised grant awarding authority. Continuing students who are renewing their grant for attendance on an existing course with their existing awarding authority, which will be either a local authority or a VEC, will continue to have their applications processed and paid by the relevant grant awarding authority.

In total, SUSI has received just over 66,000 completed application for student grants this year. Some 18,000 applications are now complete. This includes some 9,000 applications which have been refused and some 9,000 which have been awarded, or awarded pending submission of final course details by the student. SUSI is awaiting documentation on some 21,000 applications. Some 15,000 students have not responded at all to requests for documentation and a further some 6,000 have submitted incomplete documentation. The remaining some 27,000 are applications on hand with SUSI for processing. Of the remaining applications on hand with SUSI, the majority of these some 15,000 are being checked to ensure that all documentation has been submitted, however, based on the material received by SUSI to date they expect that 40% will be returned incomplete. Of the remainder some 6,000 are awaiting final assessment, some 600 have appealed the decision previously made on their applications and some 5,000 are new applications submitted after the closing date. This data has been supplied to my Department by SUSI.

The Deputy will appreciate that the average waiting time for the processing of grant applications is dependent on a number of variables including the volume of applications received, staffing resources, whether or not completed application forms have been received and how quickly complete further documentation requested is returned.

A survey completed by the the grant awarding authorities in January each year provides details in relation to processing of grant applications as the third week in January. The processing position as at the 21 January 2012 in relation to new applications was that a total of 66,479 applications were received. Some 32,152 new applications were awarded and some 6,932 applications were refused. The Deputy will appreciate that the data supplied by SUSI in relation to new applications in the 2012/13 academic year is not directly comparable as it does not cover the same timeframe. The statistics for the previous year is as at 21 Janurary 2012 and therefore includes 3 additional months processing by the various awarding authorities. Measures introduced to increase the number of applications being processed and paid include the following.

Staffing levels in SUSI have been substantially increased in recent weeks, with an additional 20 staff members processing the documjentation received from students, and extra staff have also been assigned to SUSI head office to work on continually improving the processes and speeding up processing times. SUSI has engaged with USI in relation to communicating to students the need to send in all documentation required to complete their application. A moderator is now in place on www.boards.ie to address issues raised by applicants through this forum. SUSI have commenced three additional waves of SMS and e-mail communications to encourage students who are awaiting responses from SUSI to get in contact quickly and with the correct documentation. SUSI have also put in place an additional call out service to students requesting them to submit their final course acceptance form. SUSI has also posted the top ten reasons on why students' documentation packs are incomplete on the www.cdvec.ie and the www.susi.ie websites.

In addition my Department has requested that the Higher Education Authority once again request institutions to show flexibility and consideration, as most have done in the past, to students who may be awaiting a decision on their grant application or payment of grants. The Higher Education Authority has also requested institutions to consider not withdrawing facilities such as library or exam access, given that those students are awaiting decisions on their grant applications.

In relation to information been provided to students by the SUSI helpdesk the deputy will appreciate that the SUSI helpdesk have received some 174,977 calls and some 30,746 e-mail queries to the SUSI helpdesk since it went live on the 13th February 2012. SUSI is seeking to constantly improve the information available both online and from its helpdesk email and telephone services.