Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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472. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of applications for grants to Student Universal Support Ireland by independent students and the parameters involved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43553/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Very significant numbers of third-level students move out of home to go to college and continue to be supported by their parents while in full-time education. Confirmation that a student is living separately from their parents/guardians is, of itself, not sufficient to establish independent status.

When considering whether a student meets the conditions to be assessed independently of his or her parents, grant awarding authorities are obliged to satisfy themselves beyond doubt that an acceptable degree of proof of independent living in the relevant period has been submitted by the grant applicant.

For student grants purposes, a student may be assessed as an independent student if he/she has attained the age of 23 on the 1st of January of the year of first entry to an approved post leaving certificate course or an approved higher education course or of re-entry to an approved course following a break in studies of at least three years, and is not ordinarily resident with his/her parents from the previous 1 October. Otherwise he/she would continue to be assessed on the basis of his/her parents' income. The awarding authorities are obliged to satisfy themselves beyond doubt that an acceptable degree of proof has been submitted by the grant applicant in establishing eligibility under all aspects of the scheme including independent residency.

The onus is on the grant applicant to provide the necessary documentary evidence as requested by the relevant grant awarding authority. As such, it is not possible to provide a definitive list of all documents that would be acceptable to an awarding authority, as each individual's particular set of circumstances varies. However, the type of documentary evidence that might be required would include:

- a letter confirming that the applicant's address is registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board; or

- a Local Authority lease agreement or a letter confirming the applicant's rental under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS); or

- a letter confirming the receipt and period of rent or mortgage supplement; or

- a utility bill in the applicant's name, for example; landline telephone, fixed broadband, gas, electricity or cable/satellite television bill. If the utility bills in the household are in the applicant's spouse's name then they will be accepted along with a copy of the marriage certificate; or

- official documentation posted to the applicant at his/her address and relating to his/her residence there e.g. a letter from the Department of Social Protection confirming Rent Allowance at the address or a letter from a previous awarding authority.

In circumstances where an applicant cannot provide any of the above, SUSI will work with the applicant to see what combination of evidence can be provided, and accepted, to satisfy the awarding authority that the applicant is living independently.

If an individual applicant considers that she/he has been unjustly refused a student grant, she/he may appeal, in the first instance, to SUSI. Where an individual applicant has had an appeal turned down, in writing, by SUSI and remains of the view that the scheme has not been interpreted correctly in his/her case, an appeal form outlining the position may be submitted by the applicant to the independent Student Grant Appeals Board.