I propose to take Questions Nos. 220 and 248 together.
The Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) is designed to support jobseekers to undertake second chance education. A person wishing to pursue a course of study under BTEA must satisfy a number of conditions such as age and being in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment for a specified period of time amongst others. The allowance can be paid to cover a range of courses that are classified by the Department of Education and Skills as a full-time. Masters Courses are not eligible for income support under BTEA with the exception of the Professional Masters of Education (Primary and Secondary School Teaching) or where access to study a Masters has been granted by a third level institution solely on the basis of life experience in the absence of any other formal qualification. BTEA is not intended to be an alternative form of funding for people entering or re-entering the education system.
A person in receipt of a social welfare payment may receive student grant support from Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI). Grant payments from SUSI will generally be regarded as income for the purposes of means test associated with the particular social welfare payment, such as in the case of jobseekers allowance payments. Claimants under jobseeker’s benefit and jobseeker’s allowance schemes are required to be available for and genuinely seeking full-time work and accordingly these schemes are not available to persons engaged in full-time courses of education. An exception applies to recipients of the jobseeker’s transitional payment who are exempt from the conditionality and are allowed to engage in full-time courses of education while they are in receipt of the payment.