Why are third level students disqualified from social welfare for the summer period?

dienbienphu

Technically speaking, they are not registered as students for the months of June, July, August, and half way through September yet the Department of Social Welfare considers them to be full-time students. What does the Department of Social Welfare base its claim on?

MagicSean

They are not available to take up long term full time employment.

jblack

dienbienphu wrote: »

Technically speaking, they are not registered as students for the months of June, July, August, and half way through September yet the Department of Social Welfare considers them to be full-time students. What does the Department of Social Welfare base its claim on?

Not my field but I would imagine that it is there to assist people looking for employment - not for the benefit of a student who will be unavailable for full time work for 9 months of the year.

ResearchWill

If I remember correctly third level students used to be able to get SW during the summer, I think they got rid of that at the same time "free fees" came in.

Dyr

Because we don't want those povvo's clogging up the colleges roysh?

dienbienphu

MagicSean wrote: »

They are not available to take up long term full time employment.

I never looked at it that way.

Procrastastudy

If you are on the Back To Education Allowance (BTEA) you do drop back on to what ever Job Seekers Benefit/Allowance you were on. So given that most people who were unemployed before going to college are on the BTEA the only people who wouldn't get a payment during the summer are;

(a) People who gave up work to go to college voluntarily
(b) People who are straight out of school
(c) people who go for the grant rather than the BTEA

While I personally think people in category (a) should get a state payment if they want it (b)&(c) can't and shouldn't.

The reasoning for my argument behind (a) is that if someone genuinely wants to change career or skill up they are likely to motivated to return to work when they finish. Furthermore by vacating a job they allow for someone to move off social welfare and into employment. Essentially no harm done in the bigger scheme of things.

Outkast_IRE

Well mature students can actually claim for the summer i think you need to be over 23 or something like that.
A few of the lads in my class had to do it this year as they couldnt secure any summer work.

Gurgle

ResearchWill wrote: »

If I remember correctly third level students used to be able to get SW during the summer, I think they got rid of that at the same time "free fees" came in.

There was the student summer job scheme, which bridged the gap by providing up to 600 hours of social / community employment for students.

Then there was an economic boom, and students could find summer work reasonably easily so the geniuses in the Dàil did away with this scheme.

dienbienphu

So if you BTEA students can go back on the dole for the summer then whats barring every other student from doing the same?

Procrastastudy

I think its quite well explained here but then I might be biased.

MagicSean

dienbienphu wrote: »

So if you BTEA students can go back on the dole for the summer then whats barring every other student from doing the same?

Haven't contributed enough prsi?

krd

ResearchWill wrote: »

If I remember correctly third level students used to be able to get SW during the summer, I think they got rid of that at the same time "free fees" came in.

No. It goes back much much further.

I think the only students who were able to get SW during the summer were students from households where the parents were on social welfare. Those students would be on maintenance grants throughout the college year, and then the dole during the summer. BUT I think they had to make a strong argument for hardship.

A young person living at home, if they have no PRSI contributions (which they generally won't) their parents are means tested. The payment used to be so low, and the hoop lah so great, people wouldn't bother.