USI LEARNS OF ‘SSIA CONFUSION’ TO HIT STUDENT GRANTS SYSTEM

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has learned that some local authorities are improperly refusing maintenance grants to low-income students – because their parents are in possession of matured SSIAs.



SSIA subsidy cash (a State contribution of €1 to every €4 saved under the SSIA scheme) should not form part of the ‘reckonable income’ declared on student grant applications this year. Reckonable income is the amount families declare to local authorities or Vocational Education Committees (VECs), who then assess whether students are eligible for a maintenance grant.



Matured SSIAs should not be included in this year’s reckonable income declarations, as student grants are always based on the reckonable income for the previous financial year.



But Department of Education & Science instructions for completing the grant application are causing widespread confusion.



USI has learned that some low-income families are inadvertently including their SSIA subsidy cash in their reckonable incomes – and this type of error is escaping the notice of some local authorities.



USI Education Officer Bernadette Farrell said: “Families are confused as to whether recent SSIA payouts should form part of their reckonable incomes this year. It is shocking to think this confusion may result in some low-income students being denied a student grant, because this would effectively mean that some families have been punished for following the Government’s own advice to save and invest.



“The Department of Education and Science must ensure this does not happen.



“Responsibility for this latest confusion lies with the Department of Education and Science, which is guilty of producing opaque instructions for completing the grant application, and ultimately with the Education Minister. Minister Hanafin squandered an opportunity to reform the grants system properly earlier this summer. A thorough and sensible reform would vest responsibility for student grants in a sole agency at national level with dedicated resources.”



USI President Colm Hamrogue said: “Where the grants system is concerned, a series of unfortunate complications have stretched the patience of students and their families almost to breaking point this summer.



“USI maintains that neither local authorities nor VECs should play any role in the system for assessing or administering grants from next year.”