I propose to take Questions Nos. 395 and 396 together.
The back to education allowance (BTEA) scheme is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to remove the barriers to participation in second and third level education by enabling eligible people on social welfare to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that leads to a higher qualification than that already held. With effect from 19th July 2010, changes have been made to the qualifying conditions of the back to education scheme to reflect the present economic situation.
The period for which a person is required to be on a qualifying social welfare payment before accessing BTEA was reduced from 12 months to 9 months (a 2 year qualifying period continues to apply to participants coming from Illness Benefit). People who are awarded statutory redundancy may access the scheme immediately, provided an entitlement to a relevant social welfare payment is established prior to commencing an approved course of study.
In addition, a person can avail of BTEA to resume studies in a second or subsequent year of a third level course whereas prior to July, a person could only apply for BTEA if s/he was commencing year one of a course. This also applies to people who are granted an exemption from a period of their third level course. A person who completed earlier year(s) of his/her third level course on a part-time basis but is now getting a jobseeker's payment, may apply for BTEA to continue the course on a full-time basis.
These enhancements build on other improvements made to the scheme in recent years in response to the changing economic climate: from September 2007, the qualifying period for illness benefit was reduced from 3 years to 2 years; from September 2008, the cost of education allowance, which is an additional annual payment made to cover the cost of books and materials, was increased from €400 to €500; from September 2009, the 6 month waiting period for those pursuing second level courses was reduced to 3 months.
The number of participants on the Back to Education Scheme in the 2009/2010 academic year was 20,808 which represented a 79% increase on the previous year. The number of participants in the 2008/2009 academic year also represented an increase of 31% on the previous academic year. As of 22nd October in the region of 21,500 participants were approved the Back to Education Allowance. Due to the nature of the scheme a significant number of applications are processed in October and indications are that BTEA numbers will increase noticeably again for this academic year. (Table 1 below details number of participants in the previous 3 academic years).
Table 1 — BTEA participants 2007/08 to 2009/10
Year
|
Total
|
2007/08
|
8,883
|
2008/09
|
11,646
|
2009/10
|
20,808
|
The scheme will continue to be monitored in order to ensure that it continues to meet its objectives.