Assets to be means-tested in reform of college grant system [Independent.ie]
- Published: 05 January 2011
THE next government faces a political timebomb over a controversial report which paves the way for an 'asset test' to help decide who should get higher education grants.
The move would hit farmers, the self-employed and professionals whose children currently get grants in large numbers.
The report was ordered by former Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe and was prepared by an expert team headed by stockbroker and economist Dr Colin Hunt.
It was presented to the Cabinet recently and will be formally launched by current Education Minister Mary Coughlan next week.
The long-awaited national strategy admits that the present system of allocating grants solely on the basis of declared income "does not command public confidence".
"The absence of any consideration of assets and wealth in the existing means test model has limited the scope of the State to target scarce resources towards those most in need of support," says the report, seen by the Irish Independent.
Large numbers of lower middle-income households cannot afford to send their children to college because of the current system, it suggests.
As the Irish Independent disclosed last week, almost 13pc of all new grants awarded in 2008/09 went to the children of professionals, employers and managers. And one in 11 grants went to sons or daughters of farmers who are often asset rich but cash poor.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
