Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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74. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students who were initially awarded SUSI grants that have since had the grants withdrawn from them by SUSI. [43307/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The principal support provided by the Department in financial terms is the Student Grant Scheme. Under the scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means.

The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter, in the first instance, for the centralised student grant awarding authority SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) to determine.

The application process generally opens in late March/early April. When students apply for grant support, the application is assessed and the student is notified of the decision in principle. This allows the student an opportunity to appeal a decision before a final decision is made. In a small number of cases, some students don’t subsequently qualify for grant support. I can confirm that 605 students were initially awarded grants but have since had the grants withdrawn by SUSI for the 2020/21 academic year.

The withdrawal of an awarded SUSI grant may be due to a number of reasons, such as:

- An applicant registers for a different course to the course that was previously awarded e.g. theinitial decision in principle was in respect of an approved course and the student subsequently attends a course that does not qualify for support;

- An applicant was initially assessed as qualifying for a fee grant only for a course within Irelandand is now attending a course overseas or a PLC course within the State where fee grants are not payable;

- New information from the applicant or college is received advising that the applicant is not progressing to the year of the course that the grant was awarded to; and

- Post Assessment Quality Reviews carried out on applications for the current academic year discover that a student does not qualify for support.

If an individual applicant considers that she/he has been unjustly refused a student grant, or that the rate of grant awarded is not the correct one, she/he may appeal, in the first instance, to SUSI.

Where an individual applicant has had an appeal turned down in writing by an appeals officer in SUSI and remains of the view that the scheme has not been interpreted correctly in his/her case, an appeal may be submitted to the independent Student Grants Appeals Board within the required timeframe (i.e. not later than 30 days after the notification of the determination of the appeals officer to the applicant). Such appeals can be made by the appellant on line via www.studentgrantappeals.ie.