Agency hires staff to tackle student grant delay

Additional staff have had to be brought in as fewer than 700 students have been paid their grants so far by the new agency which Education Minster Ruairi Quinn had said would speed up the application process.

Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) has received 65,335 applications and more than 50,000 families were asked to submit income documents to progress their cases.

But just 663 students have so far received their first grant instalment and another 1,020 will be paid today, SUSI said.

In addition:

* 2,875 have been awarded a grant and are now in line for payment, pending supply of bank details and confirmation of registration from their college;

* 2,426 have been deemed eligible for a grant but have yet to confirm to SUSI that they have accepted a course;

* 5,166 have all their documents in and are awaiting a final decision;

* 17,500 students’ documents are being checked to see if everything has been supplied. Up to 40% of document packs are sent back incomplete at least once;

* There has been no response to requests for supporting documentation in respect of 16,000 applications.

A SUSI spokesman told the Irish Examiner that 10 temporary staff will be taken on for an initial period of 10 weeks. They are in addition to 56 full-time and 27 temporary workers already assigned to the agency, a sub-unit of City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee (CDVEC).

Phone and email queries have been outsourced to a private company, which assesses student documents before forwarding completed applications to SUSI for decision and payment.

SUSI said it expects that 35,000 students will have been awarded grants by December, but CDVEC chief executive Jacinta Stewart said that even with recent improvements, more than 40% of document packs being returned are incomplete.

“We can not emphasise enough how important it is that students supply all of the requested documentation to avoid delay in awards and payments,” she said.

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) said teething problems were to be expected but SUSI staff have been overwhelmed by the volume of work.

“Because of delays, a lot of people are having to resort to the student assistance fund in colleges, which is funded by the Department of Education and the European Social Fund but has been cut by €1 million this year,” said USI president John Logue.

Announcing the online service for first-time grant applicants in June, Mr Quinn said the process was quick and easy, and students would be informed much quicker on application outcomes.

His spokesman yesterday acknowledged there have been issues but said SUSI has assured his department they are being addressed.