Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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481. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason Student Universal Support Ireland classes an applicant's parents as the applicant's legal guardians for assessing eligibility for grants and so on until the applicant is 21 years of age, regardless of whether the applicant is living at home or living independently when, on the other hand, the State recognises someone as an adult at 18 years of age. [10362/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Different State support schemes have different objectives. The Department's statutory based student grant scheme has its own particular objectives which is to provide additional assistance where parental income is below a certain threshold or, in the case of independent mature students, where the level of income of the student and his or her spouse warrants additional assistance by way of a grant.

For student grants purposes, students are categorised according to their circumstances either as students dependent on parents or a legal guardian, or as independent mature students.

A student may be assessed as an independent mature student if he or she has attained the age of 23 on the 1st of January of the year of first entry to an approved course or of re-entry following a break in studies of at least three years and is not ordinarily resident with his/her parents from the previous October. Otherwise he or she would continue to be assessed on the basis of parental income.

Only in exceptional cases, where compelling evidence of estrangement from parents/guardians is provided, can candidates who are under 23 be assessed without reference to their parents/guardians income or address, Article 21(3) (b) of the Scheme refers.