Politicians and Government agencies never seem to act before the problem, it always seems to be a reaction after problems happen

Before ye all get too uppity at the government, there are two things to consider here:
1. This is a legacy issue, not new to this year and it has nothing to do with cutbacks, austerity, or whatever
2. The administration of grants was traditionally handled by individual councils, which was typically slow, followed by slow processing at the college itself.

I started college in 1999 and I can assure you it was January before I, or any of my fellow 1st years, got the first installment of the grant (or, indeed) the refund on their registration that goes with it.

In fact, I got the second installment within 2 weeks of the first, such was the delays.

I’m really glad that an effort is being made to get this sorted before Christmas for students, and I hope they improve all the processes, but this isn’t some new failure.

Ask anyone who went to UCC – the most worn stone stairs in the quadrangle are the steps up to the fees, scholarships and grants office – a desk manned by the rudest people you ever met. Every year, after hounding the council about your grant, you would be told (finally) that the cheques were in the college. That was followed by up to a week of cows looking down their nose at you saying “those cheques aren’t processed yet”. When the cheques did come in, they’d close early and take long lunches. I’ll leave it there before I work myself into a rage thinking about those snotty cows.

Distressing to see Labour still pointing the figure at Fianna Fáil. Yes they made a lot of mistakes, but we’re nearly 2 years into this Dáil and this government needs to start taking responsibility for failures that are demonstrably its own.

Minister Quinn “formally apologized” to students last night & admitted that SUSI “had not worked as well as was hoped” (no sh*t Sherlock!).

Was just trying to imagine how Quinn would be responding if he was in Opposition to a mealy-mouthed response like that…

SUSI is a joke. Watching some admin person “blame” the students for incomplete applications makes me mad.
I was meticulous in meeting the original requirements. Then they came back (twice) looking for the same documents that had already been submitted. Then came a request for proof of residence in the country for the last 4-5 years. eg. A copy of a bank statement for EACH of the last 4 years.or social welfare or P60′s (like who has that?) . Rang them, and eventaully agreed to send them a copy of leaving cert, and college results for the last 3 years as proof of residence.

No bother paying out lump sums and pensions to themselves though.

As a mature student, it annoys to think that how this government has continued to implement a policy of fixing things that are not broken. for example grant schemes. On top of this the awarding body are requesting information that is none of their business and go ways beyond public information and data Act. On top of this fiasco will the grants that are over due be subjected to cuts announced in forthcoming budget 2013. the awarding body should hold their hands up along with minister of education and acknowledge “SUSI” is a failure, return the grant schemes to VEC awarding bodies all over country. NOT COUNCILS,

I am sure students, like myself believe that grants being awared to students should follow academic year when implementing cuts or reducing amounts, not the offical tax year. Here we are in a climate where government want citizens who are unemployed for one reason or another to up-skill and learn new skills through educational both formal or informal settings on one hand, while on other hand cutting the support mechanisms that allow for upskilling to be successfully taken on.

Why can’t the present government, cut their own Benefits in kind (BIK) and saleries. Lead by example.

They really have no cop on. At all. Nobody in my course (64 students) has received a grant yet. I know two people who will have to drop out if it doesn’t come through by December.

My daughter supplied all correct documentation in July then sent her course acceptance in. SUSI Came back to me looking for P21 which had already been sent in. I rang them yesterday and all the Customer Service Professional could tell me that he sympathised and empathised with me but couldn’t give me a status on my application!!!!! Sorry but SUSI are to blame for most of it!!!!!

Open message to SUSI – Why are we being lied to? Is this how you are handling your incompetence? Rather than admit that you have made mistakes and getting it sorted, you are now trying to push the blame onto the applicants themselves.

We have just been told that we have not submitted the supporting documentation for C2 on the application form. We explained that we ticked ‘no’ to C2, only to then be told that we needed to prove that by printing the form out and sending it in. Why? THIS IS THE FORM THAT YOU HAVE! Rather than waste more time posting a form, LOOK AT THE ONE YOU ALREADY HAVE IN FRONT OF YOU.

So far, you have lost our paperwork once, reneged on promises to return our calls, hung up on us many many times, have been nothing other than obstructive, and now you are lying as well.

Firstly I agree with ronan above, although not a satisfactory situation, it is definitely not a new one. The government has, with credit due, attempted to resolve the fragmented and inconsistent grant payment process by creating SUSI to streamline, centralise and ultimately speed up the system – ultimately a good idea don’t you think?

Currently the public, media and even the minister seem to be blaming SUSI, which I believe is a little unfair if you look at the facts….the main reason for the delay are the incomplete application forms sent into SUSI. Applicants are asked for supporting documentation and I’ve read that only 10% were fully complete and satisfactory. The delay has come from staff needing to chase the students for this documentation – imagine chasing 45,000 young adults, missed calls, emails unchecked, etc… I have first hand of this from working in admissions at a well known college….it is an incredibly time consuming task, particularly when asking the same student 4/5 times for the most basic of information. Put simply the onus is on the student to provide the correct information in the first place, if this is done there are no delays.

Now don’t get me wrong, I very much sympathise with those students and their families who are in a terrible situation and particularly if colleges are cutting off access. Indeed, perhaps SUSI could have made the application process easier, had clearer information or, as recent talk suggests, link this application to the CAO form so the information is delivered straight to SUSI. Perhaps they could have been quicker in taking on more staff or had foreseen this problem…. However there will be teething problems with a new system, thankfully steps are being taken to resolve this and you can be sure that next year the process will run much much smoother – I would suggest that instead of bemoaning an attempt to fix a problem, that we could be more proactive rather than reactive.

Lastly from my experience, generally colleges are actually quite accommodating in these situations as long as a dialogue is opened up. No one should be cut off as long as you inform the college clearly of your situation. Best of luck to those students caught up in any delays…

Why are the students not protesting in the streets? Is that not what students do!