BTEA and what it covers

ITS_A_BADGER

Ok so ive searched a few threads and posts and im seeing conflicting information on all of them. The part im interested in is if the btea covers the registration and course fee- if not then how do i go about achieving this by while receiveing the btea, help would be greatly apprricated

Fatboydim

BTEA doesn't cover reg or course fees... It is simply the dole while studying as it were.

You need to apply for a maintenance grant seperately. Generally if you would qualify for BTEA you will get your fees paid. [But you won't get maintenance as that will be covered by BTEA]

paperclip2

BTEA has nothing to do with fees or the grants. BTEA is a payment from Dept of Social Protection to people on full-time courses. Fees and grants are dealt with by the Department of Education.

Tuition fees do not have to be applied for. If you have never attended college before, are an EU national and have lived here for 3 out of the last 5 years your fees are paid automatically.

The Registration fee does need to be applied for. You apply online via SUSI and if your income is under €51,380 for a single person you will generally have your registration fee covered.

If you are going to be in receipt of BTEA you cannot get the Maintenance grant.

ITS_A_BADGER

paperclip2 wrote: »

BTEA has nothing to do with fees or the grants. BTEA is a payment from Dept of Social Protection to people on full-time courses. Fees and grants are dealt with by the Department of Education.

Tuition fees do not have to be applied for. If you have never attended college before, are an EU national and have lived here for 3 out of the last 5 years your fees are paid automatically.

The Registration fee does need to be applied for. You apply online via SUSI and if your income is under €51,380 for a single person you will generally have your registration fee covered.

If you are going to be in receipt of BTEA you cannot get the Maintenance grant.

Thank you so much

so my understanding is i can recieve the btea and apply for SUSI to cover the reg fee?

paperclip2

ITS_A_BADGER wrote: »

Thank you so much

so my understanding is i can recieve the btea and apply for SUSI to cover the reg fee?

Yes

Annasopra

ITS_A_BADGER wrote: »

Thank you so much

so my understanding is i can recieve the btea and apply for SUSI to cover the reg fee?

Yes

Apply at www.studentfinance.ie

ITS_A_BADGER

mango salsa wrote: »

Yes

Apply at www.studentfinance.ie

Thank you

ITS_A_BADGER

paperclip2 wrote: »

Yes

Thanks

ITS_A_BADGER

sorry to bother again

When is a good time to apply for BTEA should i apply now or leave it till august to add up another month for it?

Im on jobseekers allowance right now, ive done 2 fas courses the first one was june 2011 to august 2011 with two months on back on JA and then a six month fas course from october 2011 to march 2012 and back again to JA should i apply now for it or leave it another month? i got an offer for college today and im trying to figure out what i should do

Thanks

scoob70

ITS_A_BADGER wrote: »

sorry to bother again

When is a good time to apply for BTEA should i apply now or leave it till august to add up another month for it?

Im on jobseekers allowance right now, ive done 2 fas courses the first one was june 2011 to august 2011 with two months on back on JA and then a six month from october 2011 to march 2012 and back again to JA should i apply now for it or leave it another month? i got an offer for college today and im trying to figure out what i should do

Thanks

Hi Badger - this is from citizensinformation.ie
I put my BTEA forms in with the social on the 8th of June. Sooner the better I figured like the SUSI forms.

Satisfying the qualifying period

You do not have to have been getting your qualifying payment continuously. Periods spent on other relevant social welfare payments (or getting credits or in short-term employment) that are not broken by more than 12 months (52 weeks) can be used to determine whether you satisfy the qualifying period criteria. You must always be getting a qualifying payment immediately before starting your course.
Time spent on the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA), Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS), full-time FÁS/Failte Ireland training courses, FIT, Community Employment schemes, Part-time Job Incentive scheme, Community Services Programme, Rural Social Scheme, TÚS, the National Internship Scheme, Workplace Placement Scheme (WPP), Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, Short Term Enterprise Allowance, FÁS Job Initiative, Revenue Job Assist and JobBridge may count towards the qualifying period.

ITS_A_BADGER

scoob70 wrote: »

Hi Badger - this is from citizensinformation.ie
I put my BTEA forms in with the social on the 8th of June. Sooner the better I figured like the SUSI forms.

Satisfying the qualifying period

You do not have to have been getting your qualifying payment continuously. Periods spent on other relevant social welfare payments (or getting credits or in short-term employment) that are not broken by more than 12 months (52 weeks) can be used to determine whether you satisfy the qualifying period criteria. You must always be getting a qualifying payment immediately before starting your course.
Time spent on the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA), Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS), full-time FÁS/Failte Ireland training courses, FIT, Community Employment schemes, Part-time Job Incentive scheme, Community Services Programme, Rural Social Scheme, TÚS, the National Internship Scheme, Workplace Placement Scheme (WPP), Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, Short Term Enterprise Allowance, FÁS Job Initiative, Revenue Job Assist and JobBridge may count towards the qualifying period.

do they take into account july and august as months on benifits aswell if i apply now or just the months that i built up untill i applied ? sorry i just wanna be sure

scoob70

ITS_A_BADGER wrote: »

do they take into account july and august as months on benifits aswell if i apply now or just the months that i built up untill i applied ? sorry i just wanna be sure

I'm not sure Badger - I assume they would count july and august as part of your qualifying period - it would seem daft not to. Maybe one of the nice Mods on here could answer that for you :).

eug87

Just wondering if anyone can give some advice.
I will be applying for BTEA for college this September because I got excepted as mature student today.

I'm not sure of when to go into the welfare and apply for the BTEA, Now or wait a little longer?

Annasopra

eug87 wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone can give some advice.
I will be applying for BTEA for college this September because I got excepted as mature student today.

I'm not sure of when to go into the welfare and apply for the BTEA, Now or wait a little longer?

Go in now. No harm in going in early.

eug87

mango salsa wrote: »

Go in now. No harm in going in early.

Yeah I will head up tomorrow and get it the ball rolling.Cheers man

Long Term Louth

eug87 wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone can give some advice.
I will be applying for BTEA for college this September because I got excepted as mature student today.

I'm not sure of when to go into the welfare and apply for the BTEA, Now or wait a little longer?

Fill in the application form and hand it in straight away, here is the site address http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Forms/Documents/BTE1.pdf

eug87

Long Term Louth wrote: »

Fill in the application form and hand it in straight away, here is the site address http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Forms/Documents/BTE1.pdf

Cheers man.I shall fill that form out tonight and hand it in tomorrow.

Cocolola

Could I be a bit rude and butt in to ask a question?

I've posted before about how I'm going to be about 18 days short of the BTEA requirement but I'm going to apply anyway to try it. I've been on Jobseekers Allowance since the beginning of January this year and I'm assuming college will start around 11th Sept (with any luck it'll be a week or two later). When should I send in my form? If I fill it out next month I'll have to put down that I'm only in receipt of JA for 7 months.

Also while I'm here, I applied for the maintenance grant as soon as it opened. At the time, I wasn't going applying for BTEA so I answered "no" to that question. Now I know you can't get both any more but if I get approved for the grant and by some insane (yet unlikely) miracle, the BTEA also, is it a simple matter of contacting SUSI and informing them that I don't need the maintenance portion?

Sorry for the hijack.

ddooris

Hi All,

I started on my BTEA in 2010 and if i recall the form could only be handed in the August.....double check this with your social welfare office.

I happened to go down the week before college started in sept to ask if i was accepted as i wasn't sure of how it worked and it turned out they lost my form...so I had to complete another one and when i returned it she updated the system there in front of me took her a few mins.......it was almost like one click of a button and your swopped over

I also did a FAS course for the summer holidays of 2011 all paymets seem to be the same so yet again easy swop from one to another

I also had to apply to Dublin City Council for my registration fees to be paid...everyone will have different places to apply could be your local VEC


D

Fatboydim

In my SWLO they told me to come back in August. Though some offices seem to have different policies on this.

paperclip2

Cocolola wrote: »

Also while I'm here, I applied for the maintenance grant as soon as it opened. At the time, I wasn't going applying for BTEA so I answered "no" to that question. Now I know you can't get both any more but if I get approved for the grant and by some insane (yet unlikely) miracle, the BTEA also, is it a simple matter of contacting SUSI and informing them that I don't need the maintenance portion?
.

That should be fine Cocolola. You could email SUSI in advance and ask what you need to do if you do get BTEA.

ddooris wrote: »

H
I also had to apply to Dublin City Council for my registration fees to be paid...everyone will have different places to apply could be your local VEC

Not anymore. All grants for new applicants have been centralised into one agency, SUSI, from this year. Info on http://www.studentfinance.ie

sean1976

mango salsa wrote: »

eug87 wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone can give some advice.
I will be applying for BTEA for college this September because I got excepted as mature student today.

I'm not sure of when to go into the welfare and apply for the BTEA, Now or wait a little longer?

Go in now. No harm in going in early.

Go up now to your social welfare office. Let them know that you intend to go back to education. They will note it on your file and give you the BTEA form.
They have advicesd me to return the form no sooner then the 2nd week in august.
Because I have already informed them they told me there will be no delay in processing my application as I meet all the neccesary criteria.

Good luck with the future

ITS_A_BADGER

I went into the swo today and the women told me i cant get it until i have been registered with the college? so she said round the 10th 11th of september

Shryke

I have the form for BTEA but it does require proof of registration as well. I accepted my course with NUIG. I'm not going to be registered until the academic year starts, am I? I thought I could get this sorted sooner rather than later.

batistuta9

ITS_A_BADGER wrote: »

I went into the swo today and the women told me i cant get it until i have been registered with the college? so she said round the 10th 11th of september

Shryke wrote: »

I have the form for BTEA but it does require proof of registration as well. I accepted my course with NUIG. I'm not going to be registered until the academic year starts, am I? I thought I could get this sorted sooner rather than later.

yeah you'll not be registered until your course starts (registration day) & then you'll have to get a letter from somewhere in the college - usually your departments/schools office - saying your registered, so in your first day go & try to sort this.

could take a few days as well to get the letter, in my college it takes my department around 3/4 days maybe to get the letter for you but my friend got his straight away or 1 day after asking for it, so it'll depend.

They won't start paying it to you until you get a letter of registration from the college, this is what they mean i'd say. but you can still apply for it now & be approved for it, then just hand in the letter of registration when you get it, so you get the payments.

also, the book grant (or drinking money ) has been cut from €500 to €300, some people got this the same week they get their first BTEA payment but a lot of people including me didn't get it until nearly the end of October last year because of some system glitch or something, so don't be 100% depending on getting that the first week of BTEA

scoob70

Hi batistuta - so we can't get BTEA until we have proof of reg (which I understand) but if your depending on SUSI to cover the reg fee, will we get that before registration day?

batistuta9

scoob70 wrote: »

Hi batistuta - so we can't get BTEA until we have proof of reg (which I understand) but if your depending on SUSI to cover the reg fee, will we get that before registration day?

you should but i wouldn't be 100% sure about it.
It's just a letter i think, can't mind, saying their going to cover the fee - they won't be putting €2000 in your bank acc. - that you hand in at registration.

if you haven't got it yet just tell that to them, it should be OK i'd imagine.

fennellryan

batistuta9 wrote: »

yeah you'll not be registered until your course starts (registration day) & then you'll have to get a letter from somewhere in the college - usually your departments/schools office - saying your registered, so in your first day go & try to sort this.

could take a few days as well to get the letter, in my college it takes my department around 3/4 days maybe to get the letter for you but my friend got his straight away or 1 day after asking for it, so it'll depend.

They won't start paying it to you until you get a letter of registration from the college, this is what they mean i'd say. but you can still apply for it now & be approved for it, then just hand in the letter of registration when you get it, so you get the payments.

also, the book grant (or drinking money ) has been cut from €500 to €300, some people got this the same week they get their first BTEA payment but a lot of people including me didn't get it until nearly the end of October last year because of some system glitch or something, so don't be 100% depending on getting that the first week of BTEA

I'm just wondering do they keep paying you Jobseekers allowance every week until the BTEA begins?

Long Term Louth

fennellryan wrote: »

I'm just wondering do they keep paying you Jobseekers allowance every week until the BTEA begins?

Yes, until Btea is approved. Send in the completed BTEA form to SWO and then upon receipt of registration in writing from the college, send it to SWO, best to hand these in personally to the person assigned to deal with BTEA forms.

batistuta9

fennellryan wrote: »

I'm just wondering do they keep paying you Jobseekers allowance every week until the BTEA begins?

yeah.

the first few weeks at college it can be difficult enough to collect if you're in late everyday or have headed away somewhere for college, but most PO open for a bit on a saturday i think if you can't get it during the week.

and the payment stays there until the following tuesday or for 6 days after it was issued, that used to be the way anyway don't know if it's changed.

Long Term Louth

scoob70 wrote: »

Hi batistuta - so we can't get BTEA until we have proof of reg (which I understand) but if your depending on SUSI to cover the reg fee, will we get that before registration day?

My personal experience 2010 and 2011:

Not sure how SUSI approach this, but last year upon approval of grant application, you received a letter stating that you have been approved for registration fees only. You then give this letter directly to the college on reg day, and the college then deals directly with the remaining fee process.