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SINN FÉIN has raised fears that the major delays to the processing of student grants seen last year could be repeated in 2013 as a result of little overlap between staff at the grants agency.
The party’s education spokesman Jonathan O’Brien has been told that only 29 of the staff who worked at Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) last year will be retained to deal with applications made by students this year.
At its peak last year, SUSI had well over 100 staff dealing with applications from tens of thousands of first-year college students throughout the country – and will have a bigger workload this year, as both first and second year college students will fall under its remit.
Most of SUSI’s staff last year were recruited from Abtran, a firm which specialises in outsourced processing work – meaning that the chances of having the same staff return to work for SUSI this year are relatively slim.
“It was always going to be a significant challenge for one centralised system to replace the previous 66 awarding authorities and, quite clearly, many of the problems that occurred with SUSI can be attributed to a lack of resources and experienced personnel,” O’Brien said.
He said the fact that only 29 of last year’s staff would be returning was “worrying”.
“One of the view positives to be taken from what has happened with SUSI is that staff would have learnt a great deal from having to administer third level grants under the new system,” he said.
“The fact that such a relatively small number of experienced staff is remaining means new staff recruited to SUSI will be starting from scratch and may lack the expertise to process applications efficiently,” O’Brien added, hoping that 2013 would not see “history repeating itself”.
In response to a written Dáil question from O’Brien, education minister Ruairí Quinn said SUSI’s staffing levels were under continuous review given the cyclical nature of the agency’s work.
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susi asked me 4 times for further information, and finally turned me down in APRIL based on info provided to them the previous June. administration failure
My son’s application wasn’t sorted until March!!! Already dreading doing the 2013/14 application :(
I got mine 2 WEEKS AGO! I am finished in 2weeks after losing all the documentation I sent and months of me asking how long they finally ring wanting to know if I am interested in proceeding with my application, then after getting repeats of everything and e mailing it on they keep sending the same letter every few weeks looking for what I repeatedly keep e mailing on to them! Took a screaming match down the phone to get it sorted, sorry I was so polite to them for so long now!! And just think another few weeks and I’ll have to do it all again!!:(
This is same shower that is NOW been hired by the Revenue service to help collect the Household Charge.
A private company called Abtran.
As its a private company – they CANNOT legally take money from anyone without express written permission.
See: http://alturl.com/ctq7x
Expect more screw-ups!
It might be easier this year as most young people will leave the country and get jobs instead of studying and living on food packages only to enter a jobless market.
I’m still waiting on susi approval. Numerous phone calls and letters and repeated info sent in!!!
Scream at them, only thing that worked for me in the end!
What fines and penalties for the processing company that screwed up so badly?
Oh wait, they are a semi state company, so no fines, penalties or sackings.
City of Dublin VEC are the “company” that are looking after this.
A load of muppets!
Oh god, the thoughts of going through all this again in may with my daughter is Killing me!
Can’t wait for December to be fully registered again this shower are a waste of space why are people reinventing the wheel if its not broke don’t fix it
I still haven’t received my grant payment. I applied last June. It’s an absolute disgrace.
Thankfully, I’ve completed my course but I advise anybody applying this year to take the names of everyone they speak to, make a photocopy of all the things you send in and to use registered post so SUSI can’t claim they never received anything (I had to send in my birth cert five times!).
Ruth you can e mail using pdf much easier, wish i knew before they decided to use the excuse of not being able to find it, and every time I rang I was told something different! None of them knew what they were at, only helpful ones were via Facebook!!
Its a nightmare dealing with this crowd. Emailing them nigh on every week… still only received half of what I was owed!
Do we have to do it all again in sept. surely it’s automatic once you can prove nothing has changed . Ill crack up if I have to send the stuff again . And they asked for the same stuff again and again. I don’t know why they couldn’t just leave it as it was.
They are STILL not finished with last year’s business!! I know!! I’m a student and I see their effects in the poverty of kids attending college who can’t afford rent or food today.
My daughter will be heading to college this September so I called SUSI as their online application was not yet open for next year & the guy who took the call said”we will be in touch shortly to advise of application process” and I just asked what kind of information they may require so I could be gathering this up in the mean time and the guy laughed at me and said “we don’t even know the rules for next a years applicants so how can I tell you that” so I’m expecting a serious delay next year with this.
What fines and penalties for the processing company that screwed up so badly?
Oh wait, they are a semi state company, so no fines or penalties.
I worked in a call center and know folk working in Abtran – some of them were waiting on SUSI grants themselves while taking calls about it. I only got mine last week, no denying that the organisation was abysmal; but to anyone waiting, go easy on the guys on the phone. They can only go on the information that the CDVEC makes available to them, and from experience, it’s a hell of a tough position to be in.
On the 26th of June, SUSI will have my application for a year, I still havn’t gotten my grant.
have your say