Vol. 476 No. 2
149 Mr. T. Kitt asked the Minister for Education the measures, if any, she intends to take to resolve the anomaly which exists whereby mature students applying for third level grants from their home address are classified as dependent and their parent's income is taken into account whereas if they apply independently from their college address it is probable they will be assessed for the adjacent rate of grant payment only. [6544/97]
Under the 1996 higher education grant scheme, independent mature students are defined to be mature students who are not ordinarily resident at home with their parents. Their entitlement to a grant is assessed without reference to either their parents' income or address.
The address of independent mature students for the purpose of determining the rate of grant payable is their residence for the purpose of attending college. If this address is within 15 miles of the college, the adjacent rate of grant is payable. If the address is more than 15 miles from the college, the non-adjacent rate of grant is payable.
Prior to the 1995-96 academic year, the normal residence of independent mature students was their address in the previous October. The non-adjacent rate of maintenance grant was payable where the students's normal residence was more than 15 miles from the college being attended. There is however provision within the scheme for local authorities to review the rate of grant payable where there is a change in the student's normal residence. This provision effectively allowed local authorities to award an adjacent rate of grant if the student's residence for the purpose of attending college was with in 15 miles of the college.
The 1995 scheme standardised the approach to be adopted by local authorities. Furthermore, where independent mature students can produce evidence that they are maintaining a residence other than their address while attending college and the non-college residence is more than 15 miles from the college, provision was made to allow local authorities to regard that address as the normal residence and to award a non-adjacent maintenance grant.
To award the non-adjacent rate to independent mature students irrespective of their address would in effect involve creating a new category within the grant scheme. This would in turn be likely to lead to demands that this category be applied to all students. Such a course would involve additional expenditure of about £11 million per annum.
