James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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474. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will review the SUSI application process whereby an applicant who is 26 years of age also needs to provide details of his or her parents' finances, despite living independently from them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25885/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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For student grant purposes, students are categorised according to their circumstances, either as students dependent on parents/legal guardian or as independent mature students.

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 course or on 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.

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. Confirmation that a student is living separately from his/her parents is, of itself, not sufficient to establish independent status. This is necessary in order to ensure that scarce public resources are targeted at those students most genuinely in need of financial support.

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 Grants Appeals Board.