Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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408. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the pandemic unemployment payment will be considered as an eligible payment for the special rate of a SUSI grant given that those who applied for jobseekers benefit and allowance in March 2020 were awarded the payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34732/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Almost 101,000 applications were received by SUSI for grant support in the 2020/21 academic year. Just over 79,000 applicants were assessed as eligible for grant support with projected total costs of €370 million. Applications for the 2021/2022 academic year are open and to date, we have received over 69,000 applications. Over 41,500 have been approved for grant support.

In relation to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, PUP has been treated as reckonable income since it was introduced in March 2020. Income from the Covid-19 payment has the same standing and is treated in a similar fashion to other Department of Social Protection payments such as Jobseekers Benefit or Jobseekers Allowance. It is important there is a consistency of approach for all students. A student or a family on Jobseekers Benefit or Allowance must be treated the same as a student or a family on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.

This is not the first year the scheme has dealt with claims related to the pandemic. Over 10,000 applicants declared a change of circumstance in 2020/21 and some 40% of these related to COVID-19. The scheme has shown a flexibility in addressing these issues.

For the next academic year (2021/22), an application will ordinarily be assessed on gross income from all sources for the period January to December 2020. However, if an applicant or a family member has experienced a change in circumstances during 2021, then they can apply to SUSI for their application to be assessed or reassessed under a change in circumstances. Such a change in circumstances would include no longer being in receipt of a pandemic unemployment payment. The change in circumstance must be likely to continue for the duration of the course or the foreseeable future. This is a well-established procedure.

SUSI has a data sharing agreement with the Department of Social Protection which enables SUSI to check what type of payments grant applicants are in receipt of.

My Department is expecting an increase in the number of applications as a result of Covid and we secured an additional €20 million in Budget 2021.

The number of applications to SUSI, the approved awards, number of appeals and the change of circumstances cases are all carefully monitored on a weekly basis to monitor spend, predict costs and identify trends.

We will continue to monitor this and work with colleagues across Government to ensure the scheme can be fair and responsive to the individual circumstances of applicants.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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409. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a student (details supplied) will be reconsidered for the special rate of the SUSI grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34733/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The student grant scheme, administered by SUSI, provides maintenance grants to students who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means.

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

The qualifying criteria for the special rate of maintenance grant is as follows:

(i) The student must qualify for the standard rate of grant (i.e. the 100% grant);

(ii) Total reckonable income, after income disregards and Child Dependant Increase(s) are excluded, must not exceed €24,500; and

(iii) As at 31st December 2020, the reckonable income must include one of the eligible long-term social welfare payments prescribed in the Student Grant Scheme.

As part of a comprehensive customer service and communications strategy provided by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), to ensure that all necessary avenues are open to applicants to receive the information they need, a dedicated email and phone line service is provided by SUSI for Oireachtas members. This was established to meet an identified need for applicants who choose to engage the assistance of their public representatives in making enquiries about their grant applications.

This service, which was set up at the behest of Oireachtas members, complements the established channels provided by SUSI which include online application tracking, a dedicated website, a telephone helpdesk, email and social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Enquiries may be emailed direct to SUSI at oireachtas@susi.ie. Staff in SUSI are responding to email queries within a matter of days.

With regard to the specific application, I have been advised by my officials that the student in question was not eligible for the Special Rate as while her income was under the Special Rate threshold it did not include an eligible payment under Schedule 2 of the Student Support Scheme 2021.

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.

Apart from the Student Grant Scheme, students in third-level institutions experiencing exceptional financial need can apply for support under the Student Assistance Fund. This Fund assists students, in a sensitive and compassionate manner, who might otherwise be unable to continue their third level studies due to their financial circumstances. Details of this fund are available from the Access Office in the third level institution attended.

In addition, tax relief at the standard rate of tax may be claimed in respect of tuition fees paid for approved courses at approved colleges of higher education. Further information on this tax relief is available from a student’s local Tax Office or from the Revenue Commissioners website, www.revenue.ie.