Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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2060. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the procedure to be followed to facilitate the award of appropriate social welfare payment such as back to education allowance in the case of a person (details supplied) who has returned to education but is currently being pursued by her department for alleged overpayment of jobseeker's allowance which may be reviewed in the context of their parallel entitlement to back to education allowance but who has received no payment since January 2017; if immediate steps can be taken to restore appropriate payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28365/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Entitlement to Back to Education allowance requires that a client is

- in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment for 234 days or nine months in advance of the course commencing and

- must apply for BTEA immediately before they are starting the course of education.

The relevant qualifying social welfare payment in this instance is for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA).The person concerned claimed JA from the 25th August 2016 and as such did not satisfy the requirement to be in receipt of a payment for nine months in advance of the start of the course in September 2016. In addition the client did not advise the Department that she had commenced on an education programme.

The Department received information that the person concerned was a full time student on a third level course from 12 September 2016 while concurrently in receipt of her JA payment. As a consequence her Jobseeker’s Allowance claim was disallowed for the period 12th September 2016 to the 14th February 2017. An overpayment of €2,233.33 was assessed because she was not entitled to Jobseeker’s Allowance payment.

If the person concerned has finished her studies and is unemployed, she can apply for Jobseeker’s Allowance in Blanchardstown Intreo Centre. If she is continuing with her studies from September 2017, she is free to apply for financial support under the Student Grant scheme. Further details are available at

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.