Vol. 550 No. 4
747 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason mature students who have returned to college after a long period on unemployment assistance are assessed differently when applying for the special rates of main tenance grants; his views on whether such assessment processes are fair when it discriminates against men who have returned to college studies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8664/02]
The report of the Action Group on Access to Third Level Education makes detailed recommendations concerning the introduction of special rates of maintenance grants for disadvantaged students, usually referred to as ‘top-up' grants.
The action group considered that the target group of "those most in need" could best be defined in terms of the child dependants of people receiving long-term welfare payments, in respect of whom continued child dependant allowance is being paid by virtue of their being in full-time education, that is, child dependants in the age group 18 to 22.
The action group recommended that the special rates of maintenance grant should also be available to mature students, that is, students aged 23 and over but subject to specific conditions, namely: – (i) he, or she, must qualify for one of my Department's ordinary maintenance grants, (ii) total reckonable income, in the tax year to 5 April 2001, must not exceed €9,396, £7,400, and (iii) as at 1 April 2001, the applicant's spouse or partner must be in receipt of one of the specified social welfare payments and be in receipt of full-rate qualified adult allowance, or similar entitlement, in respect of the applicant; or the applicant, him or herself, must be in receipt of one of the specified social welfare payments.
Unemployment assistance payment is not an eligible payment, for the purpose of the special rates of maintenance grant, where the applicant for the special rates grant is him or herself in receipt of the allowance. Those in receipt of unemployment payments from the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs may, however, qualify for the back to education allowance, BTEA, the educational opportunities scheme for unemployed people administered by that Department.
The BTEA is not, under the current criteria, an eligible payment where the applicant for the special rates of maintenance grant is him or herself in receipt of the allowance.
I have given a commitment that the eligibility criteria for the special rates of maintenance grant will be reviewed with a view to extending eligibility. That review is now under way and a first step will be to assess the coverage and effectiveness of the implementation of the special rates in its first year of operation. In this regard, I have already indicated that the scheme will be extended to ensure that additional, suitably qualifying mature students will benefit from the special rates of maintenance grant.
Question No. 748 answered with Question No. 714.
