Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 January 2014
122. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will take the legislative or other necessary steps to ensure people who are parenting alone and continue to satisfy the means test requirement for one-parent family payment will not be transferred from that payment to the back to education allowance with the resultant loss of the maintenance portion of their student grant for the duration of their course. [3524/14]
View answerThe Department has been working to ensure that all customers who are affected by the age change reforms to the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme have a suitable route through this change from both an income support and activation perspective.
Given that there is no work conditionality attached to the OFP scheme, recipients of the payment can participate in training and education programmes and are not obliged to inform the Department of this fact. In some cases, OFP recipients inform the Department and, where relevant, they can transfer to the back-to-education allowance (BTEA) scheme at the start of a course. Where entitlement to the OFP payment ceases for these recipients at any point during the course, they can continue to participate in the BTEA scheme until the course is completed.
In the case of customers who have not informed the Department of their study commitments, and whose entitlement to the OFP payment ceases mid-course, the main income support option available to them is the jobseeker’s allowance (JA) scheme. However, the JA conditionality that requires recipients to be available for, and genuinely seeking, full-time work would preclude individuals from participating in a full time education course. Therefore the likeliest course for these customers would be to leave their course in order to qualify for a JA payment. Such an outcome would be counter-productive and would not serve the activation objectives of the Department. As a result, the relevant BTEA provisions have been amended to allow former OFP recipients to avail of the BTEA scheme where they are midway through a course, assuming that all of the relevant qualifying criteria are met. This approach is the only way which enables these customers to continue to receive income support from the Department while enabling them to continue their education.
Students may get financial support through the means-tested student grant scheme, which is administered by the Department of Education and Skills. Grant rates for qualifying students vary according to a number of factors, including household income, family size, and whether the student's college is close to their permanent residence. The scheme is made up of a maintenance grant for living costs and of a fee grant that covers the student contribution charge, tuition fees, and the cost of essential field trips, as well as of a post-graduate grant in some instances.
Since September, 2010, students who are in receipt of the BTEA allowance can no longer avail concurrently of the maintenance grant component of the student grant scheme. This provision was introduced by the Department of Education and Skills in Budget 2010. Students may retain eligibility for the fee grant component of the scheme, if applicable.
Any changes to the eligibility and operation of the student grant scheme is an issue for my colleague the Minister for Education and Skills in the first instance.
