Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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275. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the penalisation of students who received the pandemic unemployment payment when applying for the SUSI grant (details supplied) will be examined and addressed. [37068/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Student Support Scheme is a critical financial support for students participating in higher education. As of earlier this week, SUSI had received almost 74,000 applications from students. To date, almost 53,500 applications have been assessed with over 47,000 assessed as eligible for support for the next academic year.

As in any statutory scheme, a core principle is that there is consistency of approach and an equitable treatment for applicants as part of the means assessment process.

This applies to people who are dependent on different types of social protection payment.

The Pandemic Unemployment Payment has been treated as reckonable income since it was introduced in March 2020 . Income from the Covid-19 payment therefore has the same standing and is treated in a similar fashion to other Department of Social Protection payments such as Jobseeker's Benefit or Jobseeker's Allowance.

This means that a student or a family on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment should be treated in the same way as a student or a family who are dependent on Jobseeker's Benefit or Allowance. The holiday earnings disregard does not apply to these social protection payments, and it would not be fair or equitable to apply a different approach to the PUP.

However, a very important feature of the scheme that I would point to is the change of circumstances provision.

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 clearly include no longer being in receipt of a pandemic unemployment payment. Students will no longer receive the PUP from early September, in line with normal circumstances where students do not qualify for unemployment payments while at college.

The change of circumstances provision is a well-established procedure and it can also operate at scale. For example, over 10,000 applicants declared a change of circumstance in the 2020/21 academic year and some 40% of these applications related to COVID-19.

I am confident that the application of this provision will continue to allow the scheme to be flexible and responsive to people's circumstances.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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276. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will examine the dependent status of students for the purposes of SUSI grants in cases in which their dependent status changes from the first year of application for a SUSI grant. [37058/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The purpose of the Student Grant Scheme is to provide additional assistance where parental income is below a certain threshold, or in the case of independent mature students, where the level of income of the student and his or her spouse warrants additional assistance by way of a grant.

For student grant purposes, students are categorised according to their circumstances either as students dependent on parents or a legal guardian, or as independent mature students.

A student may be assessed as an independent student (i.e. assessed without reference to parental income and address) if he/she has attained the age of 23 on the 1st of January of the year of first entry to an approved course, and is not ordinarily resident with his/her parents from the previous 1st October. Otherwise, he/she would be assessed as a dependent student, i.e. assessed with reference to parental income and address.

A student’s status for grant purposes is defined at their first point of entry to an approved further or higher education course or at their point of re-entry to an approved course following a break in studies of at least three years, and continues to apply for the duration of their studies.

However, there are points at which a student may reclassify from a dependent student to an independent student. These are where he/she:

- Progresses from further education to higher education.

- Is returning following a 3 year break in studies.

- Is returning as a "second chance" student after a five year break in studies.

The decision on eligibility for student grant applications is a matter for the centralised grant awarding authority, SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland).

Applicants who do not meet the criteria to be assessed as an independent student for grant purposes, or who cannot supply the necessary documentation to establish independent living for the required period, may still apply to SUSI to have their grant eligibility assessed as a dependent student. The relevant information, including details of parental income, would be required by SUSI to determine grant eligibility as a dependent student.

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 and subsequently to the Student Grants Appeals Board within the statutory timeframes.

Further information regarding class of applicant (independent or dependent) and the types of documentation accepted as evidence of living independently from parents is available from SUSI’s website: susi.ie/eligibility/applicant-class/

The scheme operates in the context of competing educational priorities and limited public funding. The aim of the scheme is to make a contribution to the cost of going to college. The existing rules reflect the fact that very significant numbers of third-level students move out of home to go to college and continue to be supported by their parents, where their parents have sufficient means, while in full-time education.

In line with the Programme for Government, a review of the Student Grant Scheme is currently underway and is due to report in Autumn 2021. A public consultation process closed in April with over 280 submissions received. The views of students were sought via an online survey process in May and over 9,000 survey responses were received. It is intended that the future direction of the SUSI scheme will be guided by the outcome of the Review.