Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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688. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the Cabinet decision on increasing the amount that a SUSI applicant can earn will apply to applications already in process. [34147/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Reckonable income under the Student Grant Scheme is household income from all sources including income from a student’s employment.

When assessing reckonable income under the Student Grant scheme it is the previous year’s income that is assessed. Therefore applications to SUSI for the academic year 2022/2023 are assessed based on household income earned in 2021. The increase of the deduction to €6,552 as agreed by Cabinet on 21/06/22 will be reflected in the Student Grant Scheme for 2023 as it is only at that stage that SUSI would consider student’s income that is earned in non-term time for 2022.

While the 2023 Scheme will not be finalised until 2023 I secured Government approval at this point so that students could be informed of the proposed change and make them aware that they can earn up to €6,552 during non-term time in 2022 without being concerned that it will affect their eligibility for a student grant.

Income from an applicant’s employment which represents holiday earnings outside of term time but within the reference period up to a maximum of €4,500 for the 2022/23 scheme may be deducted from the total reckonable income assessed.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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689. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if SUSI attempts to recoup payments in instances in which further and higher institutions have received fee grants by SUSI from overpayments; if so, the amount of overpayment in fee grants identified by SUSI in 2019, 2020, 2021 and to date in 2022; and the amount recouped for these years. [34592/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The complex nature of the student grant scheme means that there is a risk that some students receive grant payments for which they are not eligible, including for reasons beyond the direct control of SUSI. This can also result in some instances in fee grants being paid to institutions on behalf of students.

To mitigate the risk of over payments, SUSI implements procedural and system-based controls within its application assessment and grant payment operations. A highly developed quality assurance programme is implemented within the assessment process and a focused programme of independent post-assessment reviews are also performed across targeted risk areas.

The critical objective for SUSI is to identify and rectify errors on a timely basis before a grant is awarded and thus before any over payment can arise. Issues identified from quality and post-assessment reviews are fed back into the assessment process through feedback and training on a current basis.

The following table illustrates the amount of over payments in fee grants identified by SUSI in 2019, 2020, 2021 and to date in 2022.

*Data for current academic year (2021/22) may change as processing is ongoing.