Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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201. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if in respect of student grant applications, he will engage with SUSI in regard to them taking into account the expenses of parents of students who are in debt settlement arrangements. [23793/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Student grant applications are means tested on gross income from all sources earned inside and outside the State within a specified reference period. Gross income, before the deduction of income tax or universal social charge, is assessed with certain specified social welfare and health service executive payments excluded. 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.

All applications for a maintenance grant are means tested based on the reckonable income for the previous tax year.

However, article 32 of the Student Grant Scheme allows for the review of eligibility during the academic year, if there is a permanent change in circumstance, relating to a number of events including a drop in reckonable income which is likely to obtain for the duration of the approved course or for the foreseeable future.

Any candidate, whether employed or self employed, who experiences a reduction in reckonable income of a permanent nature, may apply to have their eligibility reviewed under the change in circumstances clause. Where a candidate can provide satisfactory documentation to confirm that the reduction in income is permanent, their grant eligibility would be based on their revised (i.e. current) income rather than on their income for the previous tax year.