Grant system errors acknowledged

The chaotic state of the college grant system was revealed yesterday amid warnings that students could be forced to drop out unless the backlog is cleared.

An Oireachtas education committee meeting, which was attended by officials from Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), was told of documents being lost, one student being sent back someone else’s birth certificate, and others being paid the wrong rate.

One parent was asked for documents in August — two months after she had submitted them. But when Senator Maria Moloney checked the tracking on the mother’s registered letter, she found they had been signed for at Abtran, the Cork company to which SUSI has outsourced the checking of documents.