Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 July 2021
1271. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if students that are in receipt of disability, scholarship or bursary payments are disadvantaged when they apply for SUSI; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40106/21]
View answerThe Student Grant Scheme is the principal financial support for students participating in higher education, including those with disabilities. The Student Grant Scheme provides for fee and maintenance grants to all students who meet the qualifying criteria such as means, residency, nationality and progression.
To date SUSI has received over 80,000 student grant applications for the 2021/22 academic year. Approximately 56,000 applications have been assessed with over 49,000 assessed as eligible for support.
Under the student grant scheme the qualifying criteria for the special rate of maintenance grant is as follows:
(i) The student must qualify for the standard rate of grant (i.e. the 100% grant);
(ii) Total reckonable income, after income disregards and Child Dependant Increase(s) are excluded, must not exceed €24,500; and
(iii) As at 31st December 2020, the reckonable income must include one of the eligible long-term social welfare payments prescribed in the Student Grant Scheme.
Both Disability Allowance and Invalidity Pension are eligible payments for the purposes of qualifying for the special rate of grant.
For student grant purposes, Disability Allowance and Invalidity Pension are treated as reckonable income for the SUSI means assessment process 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.
However, Disability Allowance, where it is paid to the applicant, is an income disregard for student grant purposes and is not included in the means test. This treatment, along with other provisions of the scheme, ensures that those students most in need receive supports commensurate with their needs.
Apart from the student grant scheme, students with disabilities are also entitled to support under the Fund for Students with Disabilities (FSD) which provides funding to higher and further education institutions to assist them in offering supports and services to eligible students with disabilities so that they can participate on an equal basis with their peers. Students attending approved courses in Northern Ireland, the UK, and the EU are also eligible for support. The purpose of the FSD is to provide students with a disability with the necessary assistance to enable them to access, fully participate in and successfully complete their chosen course of study.
DFHERIS bursaries and FSD funding does not negatively affect SUSI grant eligibility for students with disabilities.
