Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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560. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if SUSI has access to records of payments for persons on qualifying payments such as jobseeker’s allowance and so on; if there is an issue with SUSI receiving such records and statements of payments from Intreo offices; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39783/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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SUSI’s data sharing arrangements are governed by provisions in the Student Support Act 2011 and where applicable, secondary legislation provided for in the Act. These data sharing arrangements assist in verifying an applicant’s eligibility for grant funding.

As part of the agreed data sharing protocols, SUSI has live access to records of Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection payments for all applicants and named secondary parties to applications from 2015 to 2020. This enables SUSI to identify persons on qualifying and/or reckonable payments thus ensuring all income is assessed in line with Student Grant Scheme 2020. SUSI is not aware of any issue with SUSI receiving such records and statements of payments from Intreo offices.