Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 April 2021
1337. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans to provide an income disregard for a student on the pandemic unemployment payment who is applying to SUSI for a grant given that they would have received this income disregard if working over the holidays; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19981/21]
View answerUnder the Student Grant Scheme, grant assistance is available to eligible students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the terms and conditions of funding, including those relating to residency, means, nationality and previous academic attainment.
The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter, in the first instance, for SUSI to determine. For the 2021/22 academic year, student grant applications will be assessed based on gross income from all sources for the reference period 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020.
The Social Welfare (Covid-19) (Amendment) Act 2020 establishes the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment as a social insurance benefit scheme separate from other social protection statutory schemes including the Supplementary Welfare Allowance and Jobseeker Allowance and Jobseeker Benefit schemes.
For student grant purposes the Covid-19 payment has been treated as reckonable income for the SUSI means assessment process since it was introduced in March 2020. This means that the Covid-19 payment is treated in a similar fashion to other Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection payments such as Jobseekers Benefit/Allowance, thus ensuring a consistency of approach and an equitable treatment of students and their families in the SUSI means assessment process.
As per Article 22(5)(b) of the Student Grant Scheme 2021, income from an applicant’s employment which represents holiday earnings outside of term time but within the reference period, subject to a maximum of €4,500 can be deducted from the total reckonable income assessed. The student must also have been in education when this income was earned.
This holiday earnings disregard under the Student Grant Scheme can only be applied to income from employment earned by the student in the manner described. The holiday earnings disregard pertains specifically to income from employment only; there is no provision to offset this disregard against any other sources of income, such as a social welfare payment.
During the summer months in 2020 restrictions were eased enabling many students to return to work for the summer and Christmas periods. Any students who engaged in work during non-term times can avail of the holiday earnings being excluded from their reckonable income up to the value of €4500 for the 2021/22 academic year. My Department continues to engage with Department of Social Protection on a regular basis and with SUSI on all student grant issues that are COVID related.
All applications are assessed nationally with reference to the terms and conditions of the relevant student grant scheme. The terms and conditions of funding are applied impartially to all applicants.
Apart from the Student Grant Scheme, students can apply for supports under the Student Assistance Fund. The fund assists students in a sensitive and compassionate manner, who might otherwise be unable to continue their third level studies due to their financial circumstances. Institutions have the autonomy to maximise the flexibility in the Student Assistance Fund to enable HEIs to support students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Details of this fund are available from the Access Office in the higher education institution attended. This fund is administered on a confidential, discretionary basis.
In addition, tax relief at the standard rate of tax may be claimed in respect of tuition fees paid for approved courses at approved colleges of higher education including approved undergraduate and postgraduate courses in EU Member States and in non-EU countries. Further information on this tax relief is available from a student's local Tax office or from the Revenue Commissioners website www.revenue.ie
