Would i be entitled on anything?

Stevecw

Hi,
I've read a few of the other threads trying to find out an answer before i posted this. But they confused me more than anything!

Ok I am 29, unemployed since last December. I've been getting the Job Seekers Benefit since then.
And as i can't even seem to get as much as an interview for the last few months, i want to get back to studying.

I am planning to do a 1 year full time Diploma in an Institute of Further Education which runs from end September to April of next year.

But i already have a Degree from back in 2002, and from what i am reading it seems this will prevent me from getting BTEA or any other kind of payments.

Am i correct in that?

I really want to do this diploma, but if it means having to give up my €204 a week then i just can't afford to.

Thanks in advance, any info or advice would be much apprieciated.

tonywanda

Unfortunately, seeing as you have a degree you are correct in your assumption.

If you were made redundant then you would have been considered, but you would also have to be accepted onto the course before they would further your claim.

And I believe that you have to be on JA and not JB to qualify for a BTEA, but don't quote me on that.

PeterLT

tonywanda wrote: »

Unfortunately, seeing as you have a degree you are correct in your assumption.

If you were made redundant then you would have been considered, but you would also have to be accepted onto the course before they would further your claim.

And I believe that you have to be on JA and not JB to qualify for a BTEA, but don't quote me on that.

Qualifying social welfare payments are:

• Jobseeker's Allowance or Jobseeker's Benefit

So you can qualify for being on both

Stevecw

Thanks for the answers. Yes, so it is just as i feared then.

Seems wrong that i get punished a few years later for actually having a degree.
But if thats the way it is, not much i can do then.

Another few months of doing nothing except applying for jobs that don't seem to exist awaits me so.

Hacks

You would qualify for the top maintenance grant i think, know its not €204 a week but it's about €160 a week i think

minderbender

hey... i have looked into the whole thing pretty extensively and as far as i can see you can get both btea and the grant again if there are extenuating circumstances... i would figure repeated attempts to gain employment etc might count as such so its worth a try....it might be worth looking into the details of what they consider extenuating circumstances and seeing as i dont know yours try it...good luck!

Maria3

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling.

gates072009.jpg
Gates

Police arrived at Gates’s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed.

He was booked for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to a police report. Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had "no idea who he was messing with,'' the report said.

Gates told the officer that he was being targeted because "I'm a black man in America.''

* Gallery Who is Henry Louis Gates, Jr.?
* 3/17/04 Big man off campus
* 11/12/06 Q&A with Gates

Friends of Gates said he was already in his home when police arrived. He showed his driver’s license and Harvard identification card, but was handcuffed and taken into police custody for several hours last Thursday, they said.

The police report said Gates was arrested after he yelled at the investigating officer repeatedly inside the residence then followed the officer outside, where Gates continued to upbraid him. "It was at that time that I informed Professor Gates that he was under arrest,'' the officer wrote in the report.

Gates, 58, declined to comment today when reached by phone.

The arrest of such a prominent scholar under what some described as dubious circumstances shook some members of the black Harvard community.

“He and I both raised the question of if he had been a white professor, whether this kind of thing would have happened to him, that they arrested him without any corroborating evidence,” said S. Allen Counter, a Harvard Medical School professor who spoke with Gates about the incident Friday. “I am deeply concerned about the way he was treated, and called him to express my deepest sadness and sympathy.”

Counter, who had called Gates from the Nobel Institute in Sweden, where Counter is on sabbatical, said that Gates was “shaken” and “horrified” by his arrest.

Counter has faced a similar situation himself. The well-known neuroscience professor, who is also black, was stopped by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect as he crossed Harvard Yard. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.

That incident was among several that ignited criticism from black students and faculty, highlighting the prejudices that many black students say they continue to face at Harvard.

“This is very disturbing that this could happen to anyone, and not just to a person of such distinction,” Counter said. “He was just shocked that this had happened, at 12:44 in the afternoon, in broad daylight. It brings up the question of whether black males are being targeted by Cambridge police for harassment.”

Cambridge police would not comment on the arrest, citing an investigation into the incident by Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. A spokesman for Leone said Gates is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 26 and said the office could not provide details on the arrest until that time.

Gates is being represented by Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree, who has taken on previous cases with racial implications.

ditmature

tonywanda wrote: »

If you were made redundant then you would have been considered, but you would also have to be accepted onto the course before they would further your claim.

Sorry to correct you tonywanda, but the SW70 document states that being made redundant only exempts you from the qualifying period for the BTEA. It does not give you a waiver if you already have a 3rd level qualification.

@Stevecw:

Typically (though not always), grants and the BTEA are only allocated to first time students and will not eb allocated to anyone studying for a qualification that is lesser than or equal to one that they already hold.

You already have a degree, as you've said, and wish to study for a diploma. Honours Level Degrees are a Level 8 qualification on the national Framework while Ordinary Level Degrees are a Level 7 Qualification. Diplomas are also considered a Level 7 Qualification.

On the face of it, it is unlikely that you would be approved for either the BTEA or a Grant for the programme that you wish to study.

You would be eligible for a grant to study at a postgraduate level, but the BTEA does not apply to postgraduate programmes (except those that get you a teaching qualification, such as the HDip).

Bob