please help - dose placement effect grant payment

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hello
my sister went on placement last year (2013) for 9 months and earned a really good amount (like 10,000). all the money is now gone , most on costs related to the placement , rent travel ect. This year her grant is way lower then then it has been the last 3 years. her doing placement the year before is the only thing that has changed , my mums income ect is the same. with her grant being so low this year we dont know if she is going to be able to afford collage.

is money from placement counted for the grant ? even though she earned all that money last year and is earning nothing this year?

can any body help or advise ?

Finance Grad 2015

Unfortunately, yes. The grant is based on the previous years earnings. However, when applying your sister should have entered a change in circumstances asking susi to use the current years figures instead because she is no longer earning anywhere near that amount.

I was in the same circumstances last year having done a college placement and this is the action I took

Her best bet would be to lodge an appeal. If she emails Susi with all her application details they'll explain the process. I'm not sure if you can appeal it after accepting the grant or not though so email them and check it out!

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thanks for the advise