Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2012
292. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of student grant applicants still awaiting a decision on their application; when he expects the grants to be fully processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47538/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy may be aware, all new applications for the 2012/13 academic year are being processed by SUSI, the new centralised grant awarding authority. Continuing students who are renewing their grant for attendance on an existing course with their existing awarding authority, which will be either a local authority or a VEC, will continue to have their applications processed by the relevant grant awarding authority.
In total, SUSI has received just over 66,000 completed application for student grants this year and 18,000 applications are now complete. This includes 9,000 applications which have been refused and 9,000 which have been awarded, or awarded pending submission of final course details by the student. SUSI is awaiting documentation on 21,000 applications and the remaining 27,000 are applications on hand with SUSI for processing. This data has been supplied to my Department by SUSI.
The 66 grant-awarding authorities as at 19 October, 2012 received 40,286 renewal applications and made decisions on 33,007 applications. Applications still awaiting a decision with the 66 grant-awarding awarding authorities include applications yet to be processed and applications where further documentation has been requested from the students in support of their application. This data has been compiled from information supplied to my Department from the 66 grant-awarding authorities.
The migration of the new applications to SUSI has enabled the 66 grant-awarding authorities to process renewal applications on a more efficient basis - these are generally more straightforward and require significantly less documentary evidence.
Processing of student grant applications by SUSI and the 66 grant awarding authorities is ongoing and subject to the timely receipt of all the requested supporting documentation.
