Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

220. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if a person in receipt of the Student Universal Support Ireland grant is entitled to social welfare in the event that the course is full-time but ran over two days per week; if receipt of a jobseeker's allowance by a person who is participating in a masters degree course will impact on that person's Student Universal Support Ireland grant; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18536/15]

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

248. To ask the Minister for Social Protection in cases where a person is completing a full-time college course, masters degree, where the hours of the course are confined to two days a week, the support that is available to that person if the person is available for work for the remainder of the week; if that person is entitled to jobseeker's allowance, and if the award of a jobseeker's allowance will affect that person's Student Universal Support Ireland grant payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18505/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 220 and 248 together.

The Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) is designed to support jobseekers to undertake second chance education. A person wishing to pursue a course of study under BTEA must satisfy a number of conditions such as age, in receipt of a qualifying payment, in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment for a specified period of time amongst others. The allowance can be paid to cover a range of courses that are classified by the Department of Education & Skill as a full-time. Masters Courses are not eligible for income support under BTEA with the exception of the Professional Masters of Education (Primary and Secondary School Teaching) or where access to study a Masters has been granted by a third level institution solely on the basis life experience in the absence of any other formal qualification. BTEA is not intended to be an alternative form of funding for people entering or re-entering the education system.

A person in receipt of a social welfare payment may receive student grant support from Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI). Grant payments from SUSI will generally be regarded as income for the purposes of means test associated with the particular social welfare payment, such as in the case of jobseekers allowance payments. Claimants under jobseeker’s benefit and jobseeker’s allowance schemes are required to be available for and genuinely seeking full-time work and accordingly these schemes are not available to persons engaged in full-time courses of education. An exception applies to recipients of the jobseeker’s transitional payment who are exempt from the conditionality and are allowed to engage in full-time courses of education while they are in receipt of the payment.