confused and lost

googlehead

hi,
I was made redundant in november. i live in donegal and i am 30, but i have been accepted into a course in university of ulster derry. i am pretty sure at the moment that i will have to pay for fees.

my main problem is i need to find out what grant entitelments, back to education allowance etc. i will get. because if i do not receive enough i will not be able to afford it.i am signed on at the moment, job seekers allowance i think it is.

I have been told today by the VEC that i should receive 3420 and that i will not receive the special maintainence grant of 3,270, which is a total of 6690 grant. i was told that i would probably not receive the special grant 3,270 because i have will have not signed on for 391 days when my course starts. i am single no kids and my earnings for last year gross in under 20000. I have been told by someone else that works with grants at a college that i would receive the special grant of 3270 on top on the full grant as i am over 23 and i have to travel a certain distance to college. this has left me totally confused and i cannot get a straight answer out of no one. the reason i want to know is, if i can't afford i will look to do something else instead of wasiting my time on this.

also i am not sure also if i will receive back to education allowance the dole office have been useless, and do not want to really help

can someone give me even a rough idea of want i can get, so i can decide, if i can afford it, as at the moment i am just playing a waiting game

thanks

Just to check - the second person you were talking to definitely gave those figures? Mature students are automatically entitled to the 'non-adjacent' rate of the grant, which would be a minimum of c. €3,000 for the year.

Keep in mind that the VEC admins the scheme so they would normally be the authority on this - however, that doesn't mean you shouldn't check out what they are talking about. You could contact the Student Support Unit:

Department of Education and Science
Portlaoise Road
Tullamore
Offaly
IRELAND
+353 (0)57 9324381
http://www.education.ie/
StudentSupportUnit-Tullamore@education.gov.ie

And if you're not happy with the VEC's decision when you get the grant you can appeal the result to the Dept. of Education, but the VEC should give the most accurate answer (but as I said, check it!).

googlehead

Hi Donal,
thank you for replying, A person in one a university in ireland that deal with grants told me i would receive the full amount 6690, because i am a mature student. but when i went to the VEC offices i was told i would only rececive the full non ajacent grant of 3420, as she said i had to be signed on for 391 days.it says that the students gets the special grant below if i live 24km from college which i do.

i will give that number a call thanks




Application forms and rates for the maintenance grant are usually available by the end of June of the year you are applying for the grant.

Grant rates for 2008/2009: The rates of maintenance grants will remain the same as for 2007/2008. There is no increase in the grant rates in Budget 2009. From now on, increases in grant rates are considered during the annual Budget process and will come into effect in January at the beginning of the financial year rather than at the start of the academic year in September.

The ordinary rates of the maintenance grant for 2008/9 are:
Rates Non-Adjacent Rate Adjacent Rate
Full Maintenance €3,420 €1,370
Part maintenance (75%) €2,565 €1,030
Part maintenance (50%) €1,710 €685
Part maintenance (25%) €855 €345

The adjacent rate of maintenance grant is payable where the student lives 24 kilometres or less from the college he/she plans to attend. The non-adjacent rate applies to everyone else, including all mature students both dependent and independent.

The special rates of maintenance grant are €6,690 (including top-up of €3,270) for disadvantaged students living more than 24 kilometres away from college and €2,680 (including top-up of €1,310) for disadvantaged students living within 24 kilometres of college.

Knifey_Spoony

Hi googlehead,

I found the following on www.studentfinance.ie for you:

"If your normal residence is within 24 kms of your college (“adjacent”) you could qualify for one of five maintenance grant levels currently ranging from €345 to €2,680. If your normal residence is more than 24kms from your college (“non-adjacent”) you could qualify for one of five grant levels currently ranging from €855 to €6,690. The current top grant level, at €6,690 (non-adjacent) and €2,680 (adjacent) includes a special rate of maintenance grant on top of the highest level of the regular grant. In order to be eligible for this level of grant, your reckonable income must not only be at or below a certain limit, it must also include, as at 31 December 2007, at least one of a range of certain social welfare payments. You can find out more about the special rate of maintenance grant by downloading the leaflet in the document downloads section of this site."

Being a mature student, you are automatically entitled to the adjacent rate.
However, to get the highest grant, you must also be in receipt of a social welfare payment as at 31st Dec last year.

(However, this information is for the current academic year. These details might change for next year).

Your income will need to be under €20,147, according to studentfinance.ie (if you are an independant candidate).
http://www.studentfinance.ie/index.php3?area=products&CategoryID=9400&living=1&dependents=1&studying=1&parents=0

Knifey_Spoony

So, after re-reading your post:

You're over 23.
You earned less than €20,000 last year.
You were recieving a social welfare payment as at 31st Dec last year (I am assuming you have been recieving the dole since Nov).

If all of the points above are true, according to studentfinance.ie you would've gotten the €6k approx grant this year.
If the criteria don't change for the academic year 2009-10 I think you should be entitled to it.

p.s. I'm no expert though. I am basing this on what I read on www.studentfinance.ie

p.p.s. Any disposal of property/land etc last year is included in your reckonable earning, just to let you know.
Also, your p60 may say you earned less than €20k, but when you add on any social welfare payments does your annual income (gross) still come to under €20k?