Single Parent studying

Nostrana

Hi,

I would like to ask you to what benefits I would be entitle to as as single mum studying and working part time. At the moment Im working full time and because of my salary im no entitle to any benefits. Im thinking about going bact to college/university. So I wonder how its gona look like when I would start to study.

What about opened university, does it acounts for studying?

Regards

Jana

Morag

You'll get better advice in the State Benefits forum.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=861

paperclip2

Nostrana wrote: »

Hi,

I would like to ask you to what benefits I would be entitle to as as single mum studying and working part time. At the moment Im working full time and because of my salary im no entitle to any benefits. Im thinking about going bact to college/university. So I wonder how its gona look like when I would start to study.

What about opened university, does it acounts for studying?

Regards

Jana

Hi Jana,

Part-time education is not well funded in Ireland and there is little to no state support for it beyond tax-relief on the tuition fees paid. Info and criteria here:http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/reliefs/tuition-fees.html

The majority of Open University courses are recognised to the same level as courses from any UK university. Just be aware that these courses can be very expensive for students who are not resident in the UK as the UK government subsidy does not apply to students in Ireland.

There is a limited version of distance learning operated by the Irish Universities. Its called Oscail and runs out of DCU uni. More information is available here: http://www4.dcu.ie/oscail/index.shtml

Regarding full-time education there are two state forms of support for students and these are
1. The Student Grant, paid by the Dept of Education
This is a means tested payment and is assessed on your income from the last full tax year, your residency in Ireland and your citizenship status. Details are available from http://www.studentfinance.ie

2. The Back to Education Allowance paid by Social Welfare. To be eligible for this you need to be aged 21 or older and in receipt of a Social Welfare payment for at least nine months before the college/ university course starts.
More details are available here: http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Schemes/BackToEducation/Pages/default.aspx

There is also a Mature & Non-Traditional Students forum on Boards which might be useful to you also: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=832

Hope this helps.

wmpdd3

Have a look at the limits for one parent family payment and just check if you are able to claim it. If you were then you could be entitled to more help.