Senator Mary Moran

Senator Mary Moran

Sunday 3 November 2013

43,000 students awarded grants by SUSI on schedule.



The student grant awarding body, SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland), has so far paid grants to 39,000 students for this academic year 2013/2014.  Of these, 20,000 are first time applicants and  19,000 are students who have renewed their grants with SUSI.
 
Because of improvements to its system, SUSI has been running more efficiently and on schedule. 43,000 students – 23,000 first-time applicants and 20,000 renewal students - have already been notified that they have been awarded grants, compared to just 6,000 this time last year.  The 4,000 students who have  already been awarded grants and are still to be paid will receive their grants as soon as their colleges confirm that they are registered and attending and when students provide their bank details.
 
All eligible students who met SUSI’s priority processing  deadlines and have submitted all the documents required to support their applications have now been awarded, in line with SUSI’s three-month timeline which began on 5th August. Those applicants that supplied documents within deadline and have been asked subsequently for additional information are expected to receive notification of their grant status within four weeks of providing the information.  
 
Processing continues
SUSI expects to award a total of 60,000 grants for this academic year – 40,000 of them to new applicants - and processing  continues on those applications which came in after SUSI’s priority processing deadlines.  Students can follow the progress of late applications on the online tracker system on https://www.grantsonline.ie/eseries/
 
Payments
Additional payment dates have been put in place to ensure that students get paid as early as possible.
 
       
      Payment dates
       
      The earliest that payments could be made was during October, when colleges began confirming that students were attending their courses. The earliest payment dates were:
       
        ·         11th October for renewal students
        ·         18th October for first-time university and college applicants
        ·        25th October for post-leaving certificate students.
       
      Those students who  were not included on the first payment runs will start to be paid (including back payments) on one of the subsequent  payment dates, starting 1st November and running  weekly then fortnightly.  
       
      Subsequent maintenance payments will be made monthly over nine months.
       
      More details on payments can be found on www.susi.ie
       
 
 
Final Course Acceptance Forms
Students who have been provisionally awarded a grant and who have  been asked to return  a completed  Final Course  Acceptance  (FCA) form should do so as quickly as possible. The form can be completed and submitted in a matter of minutes online at www.susi.ie   Once this document is in, the award can be finally confirmed and SUSI can  notify the relevant college that an applicant  has  been awarded a grant. The college can then confirm that the student is registered and attending. Only then can a grant be paid.
 
    Students will receive payment provided they have:
    • Received an award letter from SUSI or had their grant renewed
    • Sent in an FCA form if they are non-CAO first-time applicants 
    • Registered with their college for the new academic year 
    • Been confirmed by their college to SUSI as having registered. (This process can take up to ten working days) 
    • Given SUSI their bank details.
    More details can be found under Payments on www.susi.ie 
     

 
 
Call for documents
SUSI is still awaiting documents from 18,000 students, of whom 7,000 have not submitted any documents to support their applications. Last year 10,000 students decided not to proceed with their applications. For those who are proceeding with their applications, SUSI is calling, in particular, for the following documents to be returned:
 
    ·         For the self-employed and farmers, a Notice of Assessment of Income for 2012 from Revenue is required. Without this document, their applications cannot be finally assessed.
     
    ·        For those applicants who have applied as independent students, the correct documents to prove independent living should be sent in.
     
    ·        Proof that applicants have been resident  in Ireland or another EU country for three out of the last five years.
     
More information on the type of documents accepted can be found on http://www.susi.ie/Info/News/Documents-Alert.aspx 
Those students who have not returned any documents to SUSI this year are being asked to advise the SUSI helpdesk to cancel their applications, if they are not proceeding with them.
 
The SUSI helpline number is 0761 087874.  Email: support@susi.ie

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