Question about getting fee's paid by grant

rhythm90

Hi folks, just a quick few questions I'm asking on behalf of a confused friend!

Ok so he is looking to go back to college in September, into 1st year DIT to study music.

From 2007 - 2009 he studied in Dun Laoghaire doing computers, but wasn't in receipt of any grant payment of any type for the time he was there. He dropped out at the end of his second year, half way through the course, due to personal reasons.

Since then, he's been out of work trying to keep busy doing Fás courses and such and receiving jobseekers allowance.

Looking on to this coming September, I am wondering where this leaves him in relation to receiving a grant to pay for his registration fee's (€2000 per yr).

He will qualify for Back to Education Allowance as he's been unemployed so long, but I'm unsure where he would stand about receiving an additional grant to pay for his fee's - which he cannot afford to pay by himself.

My first question is, does Back to Education allowance also cover your fee's?

If it doesnt, bearing in mind he has already been to college and thus wont be eligible for a student maintanence grant, could somebody tell me if the CAO and Social Welfare departments trade information? The CAO will have his previous application on file most likely but the Social Welfare may not have a record of previous college attendance... thus him perhaps having the option of mentioning it or choosing to omit it... which may work to his advantage in applying for and securing a grant for his fee's if you understand what I mean....


Please if anybody can shed some light on this for me I would be very grateful, this has us all guessing and some solid information would be great.

Thanks!

rhythm90

rhythm90 wrote: »

My first question is, does Back to Education allowance also cover your fee's?

From http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/back_to_education/back_to_education_allowance.html :

Student maintenance grants

From September 2010, you will not get the Back to Education Allowance and student maintenance grant, if you:
Have been getting BTEA and are moving or progressing to a new course
Are a new BTEA applicant
Although you are not entitled to a maintenance grant, you must still submit a maintenance grant application form to get payment of the student service charge and tuition fees. Contact your local authority or VEC for more information.

If you are getting one of the social welfare payments listed below, you can choose to stay on your current social welfare payment and apply for a maintenance grant or transfer to the BTEA. You can find out whether BTEA is the best option for you.

One-Parent Family Payment
Disability Allowance
Invalidity Pension
Illness Benefit

So yeah you can get your fees covered by applying for a grant.

rhythm90 wrote: »

could somebody tell me if the CAO and Social Welfare departments trade information? thus him perhaps having the option of mentioning it or choosing to omit it...

I don't know about the inner workings of the SW dept, but if you mean making a fraudulent application, then no, it's dishonest and if it does come to light your friend will probably regret it.

RoyalMarine

since its a student finance question, then best to use this thread over here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056236754

mods, can you either move this thread to student finance or delete it? cheers.