Students may have been 'wrongly refused' grants

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has condemned reports that scores of college students entitled to grant assistance may have been wrongly refused by the Department of Education.

The Department’s Student Support Unit operates an appeal procedure for low-income students who have been “unjustly” refused a maintenance grant by their local authority.

However, the Department admitted that the appeal procedure is “not formal”, in response to a Freedom of Information request.

USI said the admission suggests that scores of low-income students eligible for a grant may have been subject to a subjective assessment.

The Department of Education conceded that its subjective appeal procedure is only now being replaced with a new more formal process.

USI president Colm Hamrogue said: “An informal system is an unreliable system. An informal system is also highly subjective.

“DOE’s admission that grant appeals are assessed informally represents a double-whammy for struggling students who were improperly refused a grant by their local authorities.

“As if being wrongly assessed once weren’t bad enough, it now appears that scores of low-income grant applicants may also have had their appeals mishandled too.”

USI Education Officer Bernadette Farrell said: “VECs and county councils struggle to differentiate between low-income students who are legitimately entitled to a maintenance grant, and wealthier students who should not receive assistance.

“When grant assessments are wrong some wealthy students may receive grants they aren’t entitled to, while low-income students entitled to a grant can be turned down by mistake.

“Now that DOE has admitted that the way it handled grant appeals was informal, USI is insisting that the Student Support Unit revisit all the grant appeals it rejected over the summer, applying the new formal process which comes into effect this autumn.”