Extra €3m for student emergency cash fund

The Government has had to put an extra €3m into an emergency fund to help cash-strapped students — many of whom are being forced to turn to colleges for food and rent money.

Delays to grant payments have put increased pressure on the Department of Education’s Student Assistance Fund, allocated to colleges through the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has approved the additional €3m budget, on top of the €8m sanctioned for the current college year.

It is unclear whether the increased investment, administered through colleges and student unions, is coming from elsewhere in the higher education budget or a supplementary estimate. The funding boost was agreed with the HEA before Christmas and Mr Quinn’s spokesperson said details will be announced this week.

Around 11,000 students received help from the Student Assistance Fund last year. University College Cork Students’ Union said almost 700 students were given over €600,000 in the first term. Union president Eoghan Healy said at least 100 unsuccessful applicants are expected to benefit when they begin looking at cases again this week.

“We’ve been dealing with students who have been thrown out of accommodation because they weren’t able to pay the rent. An awful lot of people are sleeping on friends’ couches or depending on money from friends to buy food, there are a few cases like that coming into us each week.

“Accommodation is a big issue for students who can’t commute to college, others are having problems with bills, books, or food,” he said.

Athlone Institute of Technology Students’ Union president John Madden said it has been giving out vouchers for the college canteen since November.

“Because of the whole Susi fiasco, we sat down with college authorities to do something for people still waiting for grants, and they facilitated this. Students in financial difficulty can come to us and we give them a voucher to get a soup and a roll,” he said.

Susi is run by City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee, whose chief executive Jacinta Stewart said yesterday that it was up to date with all but 715 completed applications, which it expects to have cleared by tomorrow.

More than 24,000 of around 35,000 students estimated to be eligible have already received their first payment, but Ms Stewart said another 3,313 would be paid once they supply their bank details and colleges confirm their attendance.

She said efforts are being made to get 12,179 students and their families to submit additional documents needed before their applications are processed, but 10,638 of the 67,000 applicants have not returned any income documents.

An external review of Susi’s operation will be carried out after the main backlog is cleared, but the Department of Education said it has processed more applications than the 66 councils and VECs had done by mid-January last year.