Calls for reform of education allowance payments

Further calls have been made to change back-to-education payment rules that keep some lone parents from accessing third-level education.

Homeless mum, Erica Fleming, appealed this week to Social Protection Minister, Leo Varadkar, to reverse the changes that have seen her and others ineligible for his department’s back to education allowance (BTEA).

She fears being unable to take up her place next month on the foundation course at Trinity College Dublin which would give her a strong chance to study for a degree at the university.

She is one of just 25 people selected from more than 120 for the programme — but because of reforms to the one-parent family payment from 2013, parents like Erica whose children are aged over seven moved to different payments under which they are no longer eligible to receive the BTEA.

Erica and her daughter, Emily, have been living in a hotel for more than a year and while they receive family income supplement, Erica has been told it is not an eligible payment for her to receive the BTEA.

Sarah Grimson, co-ordinator of the Trinity Access Programme course for mature students to which Erica had successfully applied, said hers is not the only case affected by one-parent family payment changes.

“That reform had an impact on a number of students, and because of the change to the qualifying children’s age, they lost out,” she said.

Ms Grimson said there were a lot of people with massive potential who they offer places to but every year some have to defer or drop out mid-stream because the financial support is not available to them.

Although recipients of the family income supplement, which Erica receives, can get a student maintenance grant from Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), those grants are not available to people on her course.

The foundation courses for mature students and young adults provide academic, social, and personal preparation for degree-level courses, for which 95% of participants later qualify and go on to take. However, Ms Grimson said, they have to support themselves and it can be unrealistic for people to study at this level while also having to work part-time and care for children: “I would be absolutely supportive of changes on the BTEA. It’s really rigid and a more personalised approach to how people are assessed would be a good thing.”

The Union of Students in Ireland has also backed Ms Fleming’s plea for changes that would allow herself and others break the cycle of poverty and end their dependence on welfare payments.

“Any rules that allow clearly deserving people like Erica Fleming to slip through the net are insufficient. Going to college puts people in a position to make a bigger contribution through taxation and skilled work,” he said.