Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 February 2025
863. Deputy Donna McGettigan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the intervention that can be undertaken for a person (details supplied) unable to access the SUSI grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6149/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra866. Deputy Donna McGettigan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the intervention that can be undertaken for a person (details supplied) unable to access the SUSI grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6206/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 863 and 866 together.
For student grants purposes, students are categorised according to their circumstances either as students dependent on parents or a legal guardian, or as independent mature students.A student may be assessed as an independent mature student if he or she has attained the age of 23 on the 1st of January of the year of first entry to an approved course or of re-entry following a break in studies of at least three years and is not ordinarily resident with his/her parents from the previous October. Otherwise he or she would continue to be assessed on the basis of parental income.
Only in exceptional cases, where compelling evidence of estrangement from parents/guardians is provided, can candidates who are under 23 be assessed without reference to their parents/guardians income or address, Article 21(3) (b) of the Scheme refers.
An official from my Department has advised that the student referred to by the Deputy was initially awarded as a dependent student for the academic years 2021/22 and 2022/23. They also applied as a dependent student on their parents for the academic year 2024/25 however she subsequently informed SUSI on 11 October 2024 that she was estranged from her parents. SUSI received documents from the applicant on 4 December 2024 in support of her estrangement, but these were deemed to be insufficient to confirm their estrangement, and their application was refused for this reason.
SUSI received an appeal from the applicant in relation to the original decision on 22 January 2025. The SUSI Appeals Officer reviewed and upheld the original decision. An appeal refusal letter was issued to the applicant on 31 January 2025.
Where an individual applicant has had an appeal turned down in writing by an appeals officer in SUSI and remains of the view that the scheme has not been interpreted correctly in their case, an appeal may be submitted to the independent Student Grants Appeals Board.
It is also open to the student to request a review of her initial 2024/25 application to SUSI where she stated that she was a dependent on her parents by emailing support@susi.ie and adding Internal Review in the Subject line.
