Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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456. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will ensure that students over 23 years of age who are classed as mature students are assessed on their personal income, and not that of their parents; and if she will introduce formal guidelines on same for Student Universal Support Ireland. [26898/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The purpose of the student grant scheme is to provide additional assistance where parental income is below a certain threshold or in the case of independent mature students, where the level of income of the student and his or her spouse warrants additional assistance by way of a grant.

Classification as an independent mature student has to be carefully considered with regard to two fundamental criteria. Firstly, the applicant must be a "mature" student, i.e. he/she must be aged 23 or over on 1st of January of the year of first entry to an approved course. Secondly, because the majority of third level students move away from home to go to college and continue to be supported by their parents, grant applicants claiming mature independent status must demonstrate that, in addition to meeting the requirement as a "mature student", they have been genuinely self-supporting and living independently for a period of time before commencing their studies.

In practice, what this means is that an applicant entering college as a genuine mature student may, if also demonstrably self-supporting and living independently, be assessed for grant support on the basis of his/her own means and that of any spouse or partner, but independent of parental means.

Setting out guidelines as to how students can demonstrate living independent will by their very nature, restrict the assessment of independent cases to those that fall within these guidelines. Such restrictions may not be in the best interest of students.