Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 September 2023
288. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will make a change to the SUSI guidelines that presently penalises students who continue to work part-time outside of holidays, putting them over the threshold for the SUSI grant. [40914/23]
View answerI recognise that third level education can be a significant cost for families and students.
The main financial support available to students is the Student Grant Scheme. The means-tested Scheme is administered by SUSI on behalf of my Department.
Under the Scheme, "holiday earnings", that is income that a student has earned outside of term time in the previous tax year, can be deducted from the total income assessed, up to a maximum level.
Previously the maximum level that could be deducted was €4,500. However, as part of Budget 2023 I secured agreement for a significant increase on this amount. For the 2023/24 academic year, the level has increased to €6,552 which will allow students to work longer hours outside of term time without their student grant eligibility being affected.
It is important to say that the rationale for the policy approach of focusing on earnings outside of term time is to mitigate against students working so much during their third level education that it negatively impacts on their ability to fully participate in their course. This issue was highlighted most recently by the independent review of the Student Grant Scheme, which outlined that while there are many benefits to students engaging in some forms of employment, it is also important to recognise that working excessive hours can negatively impact a student's education experience and may result in them dropping out.
My Department has recently published an annual options paper on the cost of higher education which has explored the option of removing the provision which limits the deduction of holiday earnings outside of term time.
I will have regard to all of the options set out in the Options paper when deciding how best to prioritise proposals in the context of the estimates process.
