Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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84. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason a person (details supplied) in Dublin 4 was refused back to education allowance when previously informed by a social welfare office that they would qualify; where in the primary legislation does it state that a person cannot get BTEA for a semester; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4571/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The back to education allowance (BTEA) is a second chance education opportunities scheme that enables those in receipt of certain social welfare payments to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that leads to a higher qualification than that already held. The scheme operates on the basis of non-statutory rules and guidance. A person wishing to pursue BTEA will have to satisfy a number of conditions such as being a certain age, in receipt of a prescribed social welfare payment for a specified time period, pursuing a full time course of study leading to a recognised qualification in a recognised college and progressing in the level of education held by the client with reference to the national framework of qualifications among others. The BTEA is designed to support the person for study for the full academic year rather than on a modular or semester basis. Given the nature of BTEA, no provision is made to allow a person to complete an individual semester of a full-time course.

The person in question was approved for the BTEA for the academic years 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2012/13. My understanding is that the person did not complete the academic year 2012/13 and BTEA was discontinued.