Susi says 82,000 grant applications have been received

The student grant application body, Susi, said it expects applications will be processed in a “timely and efficient” manner over the next three months.

Alan Murphy, head of operations with Susi (Student Universal Support Ireland), said 82,000 of the 90,000 anticipated applications had now been received.

The deadline for applications was extended last week, from Thursday August 1st to midnight on Monday after the online application system crashed due to volume of applications being made.

The Susi helpline stayed until midnight on Monday. A spokeswoman for Susi said it would prioritise applications that had come in before midnight on Monday but that late applications would still be accepted.

Susi, which came into being last year to centralise the processing of grant applications and to take the process out of the hands of local authorities, came under fire last year for enormous delays in processing applications.

Tens of thousands of students were affected and some were forced to drop out of college because of the financial burden.

Among the contributory factors to the delay was that applicants had to gather large volumes of supporting documentation to accompany their application. This year, said a spokeswoman, communication between state agencies has been improved and Susi is collecting information directly from them rather than asking applicants to.

Susi also opened its service for receiving applications a month earlier than it did last year.

“By absolutely minimising the bureaucracy the whole process has been streamlined,” said a spokeswoman. “There have been several changes and we are hoping and are confident that all this will speed things up a lot. The earliest that a grant can be paid is towards the end of October because one of the rules is that a grant cannot be drawn until the student is definitely at college.”

Mr Murphy thanked those students who have answered Susi’s call to apply early.

“Our online application system opened a month earlier allowing for this high number of applications to come in earlier this year. This will allow Susi to manage the flow of its assessment work in the next three months to deliver a more timely and efficient service for students.”

Among other changes since last year are:

Publication key dates for receipt of applications and return of documents by students,

An on-line self service tracker system - students can now track the progress of their applications without having to contact SUSI at all,

Direct data sharing with Government and other agencies - General Registration Office, the Revenue Commissioners, the

Department of Social Protection

, the Department of Education and the CAO,

Further development of the grant assessment system,

Additional management and staff resources within SUSI,

Experienced and additional assessment staff trained and in place,

Collaboration with government agencies on further reducing documents, and,

Collaboration with universities and colleges on streamlining payments.

Mr Murphy, thanked those students who answered Susi’s call to apply early and on time.

“Our online application system opened a month earlier allowing for this high number of applications to come in earlier this year. This will allow SUSI to manage the flow of its assessment work in the next three months to deliver a more timely and efficient service for students.”