Mature Student grant cuts

drominagh

Can anyone who has been affected by the cuts in grants please tell their story on the facebook page Education NOT Poverty https://www.facebook.com/pages/Education-NOT-Poverty/181440521932326 . This will help us assess the effect of the cuts on everyone. More important, would you please try and contact anyone who has had to drop out because of the cuts in the grants (I know at least three people) and ask them to post that fact on Education NOT Poverty.
Thank you everyone.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Education-NOT-Poverty/181440521932326

gimme5minutes

How can mature students afford to back to full time study on the grant alone anyway? Doesnt it work out at something like €50 quid a week? Should have stayed on the dole long enough to qualify for the BTEA, then you would be getting about €190 a week and it would still be tough enough to survive on that.

Agent_99

Some of us budgeted to go back to college with the option that we would automatically get the Non Adjacent rate, now that this has been axed it creates a lot of problems. I had no intention of sitting on the Dole for 9 mths getting into deeper debt so I worked up right up until the Friday before I returned to College. Also Mature Students are more than likely to choose a college close to their home for family reasons.. I have two dependent children and for me to travel to Cork, Galway or Dublin would not have been possible.

It was my choice to return to education not just something to do whilst waiting for a job to come along.

canned_ulkc

gimme5minutes wrote: »

How can mature students afford to back to full time study on the grant alone anyway? Doesnt it work out at something like €50 quid a week? Should have stayed on the dole long enough to qualify for the BTEA, then you would be getting about €190 a week and it would still be tough enough to survive on that.

You can't survive on grant alone.

Many mature students who have been out working in industry before returning to education do so with the aid of savings/redundancy payments and/or support from parents/partners/spouse.

I find the attitude of staying on the dole in order to be able to claim up to approx 5 years of social welfare payments sickening. Like Agent 99 I worked right up to returning to college, in fact, for me I continued to work right up to my finish date a month after beginning first year.

Sadly, after qualifying for JSB for summer 1 & summer 2 I fought each year for BTEA with no success despite basically making the request which would result in up to 2 years paymenst of social welfare as opposed to the 5 years if I lounged on the dole for 9 months before going back.

Sadly - instead we are expected to take our TAXED savings, redundancy or spouses/parents money and put MORE pressure on them while we upskill. The net result is that this country ends up with higher educated (and paid) people like ourselves who have not aimed to drain public finances beyond what we feel we deserve and who are being shat on by those who will manage our higher taxes when we work...

chattycatty

Hi All..
As a former student in 2010/2011, I believe each student in receipt of a grant should have to pay it back when they start working. This would stop certain families not declaring their means when applying for a grant. The grant has not been cut , as the increase in fees is been covered while the student who as to pay it all is being penalised by another 250 euro. So students who receive grants should appreciate it that the taxpayer is funding them as it stands. It is these honest taxpayers children who don't receive a grant. If a student really wants to go to college they would be more willing to pay it back at the end of college.This would stop students wasting money in college when they don't even want to do the course.
I am not saying every student parents is not declaring their means,just their a rather large proportion of the self employed and farming community children who are in receipt of grants that do not deserve it.

Gareth2011

Whjats this about grants being cut? I thought the fees went up by 250 for post grad students? I plan on goingh to college next year to do an undergraduate course that will last 3 years and id be quite happy to pay back my cost of going to education once I had a job. I should be eligable for the BTEA provided im still on social come next sept but they havent stopped tutition fees for people on social going back to college have they?