Mature students making the “brave decision” to return to full time education need to be “supported and not punished” for doing so.
This is the view of Independent Galway East TD, Seán Canney, who has claimed that mature students are being treated unfairly under the Student Universal Support Ireland regulations.
Under current regulations, if a mature student is living with their parent(s ), their parents income is taken into account as part of that assessment.
A mature student can be as young as 23, and many people in their twenties are still living at home, owing to the difficulty their generation has in getting on the housing ladder, or the difficulty in being able to afford rents, given that rents in Galway are now at an average of more than €1,440, according to the latest Daft.ie report.
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“This legislation is outdated and is anti-education,” said Dep Canney [pictured above]. “It puts many mature students over the income threshold. It means many mature students are denied financial support and this is a deterrent to going back to education. Most people working in full time education are being penalised because they are living with their parents. They do not live off their parents.”
Dep Canney is calling on the Government to review these rules, saying that, as they stand, they “contradict Government policy in relation to upskilling and seeking educational qualifications to further progress their careers”.
