'SSAI confusion' may hit student grants
Some local authorities are improperly refusing maintenance grants to low-income students because their parents are in possession of matured SSIAs, according to the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).
The organisation claims that some families are declaring their SSIA subsidy cash as part of the ‘reckonable income’ declared on student grant applications this year.
Reckonable income is the amount families declare to local authorities or Vocational Education Committees (VECs), who then assess whether students are eligible for a maintenance grant.
Student grants are always based on the reckonable income for the previous financial year.
Now Department of Education and Science instructions for completing the grant application are causing widespread confusion, according to USI.
“Families are confused as to whether recent SSIA payouts should form part of their reckonable incomes this year,” said USI education officer Bernadette Farrell.
“It is shocking to think this confusion may result in some low-income students being denied a student grant, because this would effectively mean that some families have been punished for following the Government’s own advice to save and invest.
“Responsibility for this latest confusion lies with the Department of Education and Science, which is guilty of producing opaque instructions for completing the grant application, and ultimately with the Education Minister.
“Minister (for Education Mary) Hanafin squandered an opportunity to reform the grants system properly earlier this summer. A thorough and sensible reform would vest responsibility for student grants in a sole agency at national level with dedicated resources.”
