Mature Student Finances

Kitessa87

Hi everyone, I hope someone can give me bit of advise on my situation. I am currently in VTOS education, Business Level 6 and thinking of applying to CAO for one of the Business courses Level 8, either in Maynooth or Dublin.

Currently I am on VTOS allowance, I have medical card and my partner is claiming rent allowance (which probably be cut off when he come back to work in December). The finances are tight for now and I wonder how will I manage if I will have to pay all the fees on collage.

I wish someone could answer few questions for me.

Is there enough financial support available so you can have few quid to leave from it?

If you receive a full SUSI grant can you apply for BTEA so you have a money to actually live and travel.

I am getting very concerned and trying to research it now. I am very new to this and I will appreciate if some students could share their experience with if finances during their study.

Thank you!

Wanderer19

You cannot get the BTEA and full Susi grant, but you may be eligible to have the fees paid.
You can also work part time on the BTEA, but conditions apply.

Mjolnir

Kitessa87 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I hope someone can give me bit of advise on my situation. I am currently in VTOS education, Business Level 6 and thinking of applying to CAO for one of the Business courses Level 8, either in Maynooth or Dublin.

Currently I am on VTOS allowance, I have medical card and my partner is claiming rent allowance (which probably be cut off when he come back to work in December). The finances are tight for now and I wonder how will I manage if I will have to pay all the fees on collage.

I wish someone could answer few questions for me.

Is there enough financial support available so you can have few quid to leave from it?

If you receive a full SUSI grant can you apply for BTEA so you have a money to actually live and travel.

I am getting very concerned and trying to research it now. I am very new to this and I will appreciate if some students could share their experience with if finances during their study.

Thank you!

Susi and btea - no not together, you can get your fees paid and btea while working part time. Btea is max €203 p/week and income from part time work will effect it as with jobseekers allowance.

In regards have a few quid left not a hope, you'll likely need to find a part time job.

Full time mature student, on btea and worked part time nights prior to covid. Without parental support I'd have to have dropped out.

Its zero craic being a broke student especially in your late 20's(me). Hopefully the pay off after graduation is worth it, although any degree opens more doors than none.

Kitessa87

Mjolnir wrote: »

Susi and btea - no not together, you can get your fees paid and btea while working part time. Btea is max €203 p/week and income from part time work will effect it as with jobseekers allowance.

In regards have a few quid left not a hope, you'll likely need to find a part time job.

Full time mature student, on btea and worked part time nights prior to covid. Without parental support I'd have to have dropped out.

Its zero craic being a broke student especially in your late 20's(me). Hopefully the pay off after graduation is worth it, although any degree opens more doors than none.

Thank you for your replay. That what I needed to know exactly. To be honest I can’t count on parental support. They both passed away and they weren’t at the position of help anyway.
I am kinda scared of thinking how will I manage. Like I will need definitely some source of income. I thought actually that SUSI is paying you for fees but you have few bobs to life from.

Now I starting to think of doing evening course and maybe getting full time job, otherwise I probably won’t manage. I still have all my bills to pay and rent which is not low (renting in Co Kildare).

Mjolnir

Kitessa87 wrote: »

Thank you for your replay. That what I needed to know exactly. To be honest I can’t count on parental support. They both passed away and they weren’t at the position of help anyway.
I am kinda scared of thinking how will I manage. Like I will need definitely some source of income. I thought actually that SUSI is paying you for fees but you have few bobs to life from.

Now I starting to think of doing evening course and maybe getting full time job, otherwise I probably won’t manage. I still have all my bills to pay and rent which is not low (renting in Co Kildare).

You can get the susi grant if you're eligible for the maintenance grant along with the fees.
You may be eligible for both but can only be in receipt of the maintenance grant or btea. You can have fees paid for regardless as long as you're eligible.
The grant and btea work out very similar in total amount but the btea is paid weekly, the grant used to be every quarter or so.

There's plenty of part time courses you could complete, they for the most part require two nights a week and either a Saturday every few weeks or so.

By no means is my mother well off but she does help support me when I need it.

Work out how much you need per month to live, go talk to the social about any supports available if you were to go to college.

I view it as four years of hardship for a lifetime pay off.

I did consider part time myself but given the industry I want to enter having a university degree over an it degree is more beneficial.

If ya can go, go honestly its flying by sure I'm half way through semester 1 of year 2.

Kitessa87

Mjolnir wrote: »

You can get the susi grant if you're eligible for the maintenance grant along with the fees.
You may be eligible for both but can only be in receipt of the maintenance grant or btea. You can have fees paid for regardless as long as you're eligible.
The grant and btea work out very similar in total amount but the btea is paid weekly, the grant used to be every quarter or so.

There's plenty of part time courses you could complete, they for the most part require two nights a week and either a Saturday every few weeks or so.

By no means is my mother well off but she does help support me when I need it.

Work out how much you need per month to live, go talk to the social about any supports available if you were to go to college.

I view it as four years of hardship for a lifetime pay off.

I did consider part time myself but given the industry I want to enter having a university degree over an it degree is more beneficial.

If ya can go, go honestly its flying by sure I'm half way through semester 1 of year 2.

Great. Thank you so much. I really appreciate information you just gave me. I try to google everything but what I needed is an opinion from someone who is actually in study. Otherwise will be hard to figure this all out.

raclle

I'm in a similar position and done a lot of research recently. As others mentioned you cannot receive both the susi grant and btea.

Everything is means tested based on your income but the threshold is something like 45k

If you are going for the susi grant you will not get the same amount for living expenses as you would on btea. If you are also working part time you will be means tested and will receive less income. When the academic year is finished and you decide to work fulltime for the summer you will only be allowed to earn a certain amount which I believe is €4500

This is the reason I myself will be applying for the btea but it all depends on your circumstances.

Here's a few helpful links if you haven't seen already

https://susi.ie/
https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/5afe0f-operational-guidelines-back-to-education-allowance/