Making an enquiry about a grant in Cork? Don't bother this month.

sceptre

Doesn't affect me (which is just as well as I'm not a great fan of incompetence or incompetents).

Apparently the grants section of Cork county council are so far behind in processing grant applications (most of them have been sorted but they didn't bother looking at the remainder for a few months) that they're not answering any official correspondence or answering the phones for the next month. And that's, er official.

Kudos guys. I could commend you for your diligence in staying off the coffee breaks for the next few weeks but I'll point and call you incompetent instead as it's more appropriate.

Incidentally, I'm posting this as info for anyone who's been caught up in the red tape and has a college pestering them for money - the rant is just an added bonus.

Raskolnikov

I'm one of the unlucky ones who still hasn't recieved any word from the Cork county grant office despite the fact my application was made on time. At this rate I'll be lucky to have my grant by the beginning of the next college year.

Senor_Fudge

when i was in college in 2001 /2002 i didnt get my grant until february!
so i was broke all the time
Really the system is a joke , why dont they employ more people or something

only in ireland :rolleyes:

Lump

You're getting free money... stop moaning. Get a job.


John

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Lump
You're getting free money... stop moaning. Get a job.


John

That's not fair. Some of us are already working to put ourselves through college and the last thing we need are more delays in waiting for grants. If my parents weren't willing to lend me the money I'd have had to have went without college books for the year.

sceptre

Originally posted by Lump
You're getting free money... stop moaning. Get a job.

That might be a tad unfair (I think it may be very unfair but I'll go with "a tad")

Here's why: colleges (UCC and UCG in particular) are currently pestering some students because they haven't been paid by the county councils. They've received confirmation letters from some and these letters have been returned to the county councils by the students, stamped by the colleges. No money forthcoming from the councils, colleges are peeved. One could make the case that the colleges should be more patient but they're already short money. And the councils are failing to give a service to both colleges and students that they said they would.

Any kind of aid (social welfare, college grants, pick another one) may fall under the category of "free money" but once applied for, they're given out of right, not out of subjective charity. There are students (not all students drink their grant, many of them use the money to buy food and heat the house) who budgeted for the year on the basis they'd get their entitlements on schedule, not at a time when the bank loses patience with them and they worry to an extent where it starts to affect their study.

Little note to Raskolnikov and anyone else getting shoddy treatment: a little note to the ombudsman might be deserved. Part of Emily O'Reilly's function is to take complaints from people who feel they've been treated unfairly by government departments and councils. It'll only take you a few minutes to send in an email with the facts.

As I said above this doesn't personally affect me at all, I'm only aware of the problem because I know of a few people who are affected by it who can't ask their parents for money. However, I've always held the position that good performance (even by government organs) should be rewarded and terrible performance (even by government organs) should be worthy of a complaint. It may or may not help you but if the complaints mount up (and Cork CoCo have always been terrible in this regard - Limerick corpo had only one person working on grants and she managed to sort out over 90% of the applications by the beginning of December this year, as far as I know even Fingal CoCo have managed to sort out almost all of the applications and they didn't start looking at them till October), someone will take a close look at how Cork CoCo are managing (or not managing) their human resources, sooner or later - every complaint is presented (or catalogued to be precise - it's compiled in an anonymous way) in an annual report to the Oireachtas.

Lump

Originally posted by Raskolnikov
That's not fair. Some of us are already working to put ourselves through college and the last thing we need are more delays in waiting for grants. If my parents weren't willing to lend me the money I'd have had to have went without college books for the year.

Well giving out about it on here won't get your grant any quicker. Have you gone in and seen the people in charge of grants?


John

Oriel

Originally posted by Raskolnikov
That's not fair. Some of us are already working to put ourselves through college...

I really hope you're not doing a webdesign course, else you don't have no leg to stand on there I'm afraid

Oriel

Also, (on topic this time)
Be thankful you're getting a grant and not a loan. I'm currently about £12,000 (what, €18,000 - 20,000?) in debt thanks to 4 years at Uni, which will be automatically taken out of my earnings until I've paid it all back again in full. Which means, that when I'm out in a job earning (hopefully) some "decent" money for once, I'll still be skint for a good few years to come.

It's a unfair situation mainly because of the fact that:
student = no full time job.
student = part-time job / college-work time conflict
student = no dole benefit.

I'd see your grant as being your dole, so I guess, in effect, it should arrive on time.

S.

Lump

Don't you have to be earngin over a certain amount before you have to pay that back?


John

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Sinecure
I really hope you're not doing a webdesign course, else you don't have no leg to stand on there I'm afraid

I really hope that the university you're attending has some sort of refunds policy. With nearly twenty years of education behind you, you ought to notice that

It's a unfair situation

is incorrect English.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by sceptre
Little note to Raskolnikov and anyone else getting shoddy treatment: a little note to the ombudsman might be deserved. Part of Emily O'Reilly's function is to take complaints from people who feel they've been treated unfairly by government departments and councils. It'll only take you a few minutes to send in an email with the facts.

Thanks for the link, I'll fire off an e-mail