Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

129. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the discussions she has held with the Department of Social Protection regarding offsetting changes to payments from the Department of Social Protection that will restrict student eligibility for Student Universal Support Ireland grants as their income will be €100 over the limit; her plans to allocate additional funding for the student assistance fund. [32424/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will be aware that my officials engage in ongoing consultations with key stakeholders such as the Department of Social Protection. These consultations with the Department of Social Protection subsequently informed decisions I made in terms of including a number of new income disregards in the 2015 Scheme. These new income disregards are no longer assessed as part of the reckonable income of applicants. They include the Exceptional Needs Payments, Household Benefits Package, Housing Assistance Payment, Jobseekers Allowance Transition (where paid to the applicant), Mortgage Interest Supplement, Rent Supplement and the Back to Work Family Dividend.

In addition to the various income disregards, the student grant scheme includes a number of gradations in income thresholds which allow students on different income levels to access grants at 100%, 75%, 50% and 25%. These gradations act as a safety net to ensure that students whose reckonable income is slightly above the threshold, can still benefit from grant support.

With regard to the Student Assistance Fund I can confirm that the HEA has commissioned an independent review of policy, guidelines and practice in relation to the Fund. Any changes to the administration of the Fund will be considered when the review is completed.