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A STUDENT HAS said he has been waiting for almost a year for a decision on his grant application to SUSI, the national student grant system.
The mature student in his twenties, who did not want to be named, spoke to TheJournal.ie, saying that he is going into third year at a UK university, and applied for a grant through SUSI for his second year in August 2012.
He said that he has had to send numerous pieces of documentation to SUSI over the past year, but still has not been given a decision.
The postal communication with SUSI was made via his father in Ireland. In a week’s time, it will be a year since his application. “I’ve been reading headlines, bits of things in the media that [SUSI] have gotten through all these applications. I still haven’t received any decision,” he said. “It has really come to a head in the past couple of weeks.”
The student said that at one point he was ringing SUSI once a week, and it cost him a significant amount of money to phone from the UK.
“I’m totally broke – my phone bills have been massive through ringing them every Monday. I can’t do this any longer,” he said.
Finances
He said that in July, one person from SUSI told him that he would have a decision in a few days, but this did not transpire.
The deadline for this year’s applications for SUSI is 1 August. The student said he is “nervous” about this, but was assured it wouldn’t affect him.
“Every time I talked to a person they said they would escalate this,” said the student. “This isn’t really good enough.”
He said he was advised to email SUSI every second day and ask to be updated as to the progress of his application. Last Monday, he emailed and informed them he had read their complaints procedure and was making an informal complaint.
“It is unbelievably frustrating,” he said.
I’m sick of hearing all these things in the media about how great they are doing when actually they are completely leaving people by the wayside, me being one of them.
The student said that “it is getting to a stage of make or break” and he is “living on nothing”, as in the UK he does not qualify for financial assistance.
He is now €15,000 in debt and said he had to get a loan in March because the grant had not come through. “If the grant system worked correctly, I wouldn’t have had to do that,” he said. “It got to a stage where I couldn’t pay my rent. The credit union were fantastic, really supportive.”
“I’m so angry to read that they’ve made so many improvements,” he said of SUSI. “I’m just waiting on any form of decision without any confirmation about if I will be allowed for next year’s application.”
SUSI response
A spokesperson for SUSI, said that there are “a handful of people still waiting” for their appeal information, and that they “are not in our system for anything like a year”. He said that people waiting for a decision “can be counted on one hand” but he could not comment on an individual case.
He said that the people “that we’re dealing with still have to provide us with some information”, which “might be a small bit of information” and “we expect to have it sorted within a matter of days” as they are “not difficult cases to deal with”.
He added that they are “being resolved with satisfaction”.
After a number of shortcomings were identified with SUSI last year, significant changes have taken place. These include a cut in the level of documentation required from applicants, as well as more staff being allocated to SUSI for dealing with applications.
Applications made before 1 August would be prioritised, SUSI said earlier this week. If students miss the 1 August deadline, which is one of SUSI’s published dates, their application won’t be refused. Students can also check their eligibility for the grant online.
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To be fair I found SUSI very efficient and rapid ………. in telling me to feck off and don’t be hassling them for a grant.
Same for me, studying in Ulster. Haven’t had decision from susi, application was made last year.. Course is finished in September. I just gave up though, hopefully this guy sticks to it and gets it.
Don’t forget there’s the ombudsman to complain to as well now.
Giving up on it is what they are hoping for.Anything outside the norm now is put on the long finger.
I don’t think SUSI have some sort of agenda of purposefully delaying applicants to this end tbf. I really hope this guy is just mistaken in his eligibility for a grant because I’d hate for Irish students to find themselves in a foreign country completely unsupported, especially if you live under the circumstances of requiring a grant to begin with.
If he was mistaken. Ie his fault, shouldn’t they have told him that by now.
Unnamed source, interview could have been done over the phone or the internet, maybe the journal just wanted a sensational story to tie in with SUSI application deadline so ignored certain points? Sure for all we know this student might not exist.
My point is maybe there is something more complicated at work in this case, perhaps he was refused and he’s waiting on an appeal which to me sounds a little bit more reasonable but still not acceptable for such a ridiculous delay. Or maybe SUSI is actually run by apes, I just don’t think they’re trying to squeeze people out of the system by purposefully delaying them, even though that would make sense from a budget perspective :P
Hi James, the person I interviewed does – of course – exist. He asked not to be named in the article, which is not unusual in itself.
Thanks,
Aoife
Thanks for the clarification on that Aoife but could you further clarify whether he had received any correspondence from SUSI whether his application was successful or not, whether they acknowledge receipt of any supporting documentation or if he has failed to supply some necessary document. I just find it hard to believe that any organisation can be so unorganised, or maybe that’s just my blind optimism.
Well that is very worrying, my own sister is studying in Scotland next year and if something similar happened it would be a pretty big toll on the family. I hope he’s seeking legal advice because that’s really out of order tbf.
Omnishambles. Like everything FG/Lab have done since coming to power on a political reform promise.
We should be giving loans, not grants:
http://m.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057006278
Be gone with your sensible input, sure why would we give loans when some people can get free money and the rest have to pay out of their own pockets and work through their studies. Sure that’s how things work in Ireland!
Much simpler system but the lefties here will down vote you to death
Let them. I’m bringing it to my TD.
This makes more sense for the future of our country.
Lads, I would love if the government gave loans for college fees, I have just been turned down a grant even though I am on illness benefit and have no other income! But can not one of ye see how giving loans might disincentivise people from lower socio-economic backgrounds to enter college?
@Diarmaid Absolutely, it’s the people who have the whole system set against them that would suffer yet again. Student loans should be encouraged to match the system in the U.K, but it’s a matter for the banks, and the grant should stay in place too IMO. I think in a post bailout economy the government should be able to force some more reasonable student loan terms without having to underwrite every student loan, it’d be good for the banks, good for the kids, good for the future and good for the government WIN WIN I say.
Absolutely James, see my issue with the people who rabble on about “cutting welfare” and stopping student grants and “lefties” is, these are the same people who see nothing wrong with companies who are worth billions getting free money from us to build THEIR factories through IDA grants!
I can’t see how giving a loan would disincentivise anyone. It would be repayable over ten years at a low interest rate & would be open to everyone.
If anything it would make it easier for lower economic groups to achieve third level.
How exactly would charging them make it easier on poorer people to enter 3rd level? An interesting observation!
It’s repayable over 2.5 times longer than college lasts, with nothing payable while in college.
If anything it’s more of an incentive to actually finish the course & graduate.
Give someone something for free & they don’t put a value on it.
You’ll find that of all the type of individuals who end up in college that those who put least value on it is those who can actually afford it! I would imagine that the one group of people who would value college is those who can’t afford it?
OU812 a person on the very lowest income bracket, from a disadvantaged family, class and region who’s friends or family have never been to 3rd level education but work low paying jobs already has no reason in the world to go to college when they could go straight into the workforce and earn money rather than be dependent on a student grant (and I’m pretty sure social welfare is more than a student grant as well). Tell them they get a grant isn’t even good enough to get the person into college, they need a whole range of supports and a loan is not a support in any way, it’s a liability for the disadvantaged. I do think we should have a good student loan system but it should be for the students who don’t receive enough support from either the government or their families.
I applied last July for a fees only grant, got it this June. SUSI kept refusing me saying that I hadn’t given them all documentation even though i had.
I sent them the same documentation 3-4 times and yet they requested it again saying that I hadn’t sent it to them.
In any other country a shambles like this would lead to the minister for Education having to resign, but, this is Ireland.
Absolutely unbelievable the symbolic way the grant system in Ireland is being handled….. We are the laughing stock of Europe :-(
Shambolic.
“are not in our system for anything like a year”
That’s a lie, I know people who applied in July 2012. They just want the likes of this guy and my friend to give up.
Wake up susie wake up…..
I got my grant last week after 1 year of phone calls and emails, I have found emails the best way to communicate with them as you have a record of mails and have to reply to them. I am not optimistic that things will be any better this year. Prove me wrong susi
The heading seems misleading, to be honest, it seems he was given a decsion which was declined so he appealed it. Also it’s a national grant system, not a international one. Should he not be applying to a UK grant agency. Don’t you also have to be liveing in Ireland 3 of 5 years to be awarded the grant, how is this possible if he’s in the UK
Hi Sean, the headline is not misleading – the student has not received a decision, as the article states. Therefore he cannot appeal. He has given an informal complaint, which is not the same as an appeal.
get 1200 a year, which I’m delighted with, but people living in the estate beside mine get 6000 a year because they live in council houses and there parents seem better off them mostI
So “reform” isnt always better
have your say