Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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657. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to review the income criteria for Student Universal Support Ireland grants and to base the awarding of grants on net pay rather than gross pay; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29712/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The rates of grant and the income thresholds for the Student Grant Scheme are announced annually as part of the Budget. No changes to the rates or thresholds were included in Budget 2015.

Student grant applications are means tested on gross income from all sources earned inside and outside the State within a specified reference period. The means test arrangements of the Student Grant Scheme are applied nationally. The assessment of income from the same starting point is deemed to be fair and reasonable because this approach eliminates any distortion which might arise from different spending decisions in different households.

It is not proposed to depart from the existing arrangements for the determination of grant eligibility