Mature Student

Conois

Hi everyone, just looking for some advice please.

I'm looking at returning to College in September. I'm 34 years old and employed on a part time basis in a job which I have held for 11 years.

I'm extremely nervous about approaching this subject with my OH as obviously, like every household in the country, money is tight. We have a mortgage and 3 young children and everything that goes along with that (financially I mean). My OH has always been extremely supportive about different night courses etc that I have attended however this is different, this will be a full time course for 3 years!

I am wondering if anyone could tell me about grants that I might be entitled to or anything else that I may be entitled to. I suppose what I'm most afraid of is that I will be leaving my job after all these years and going into the unknown however I absolutely cannot allow myself to continue in a job that I hate so much for the sake of money. It dominates every aspect of our lives and I don't want to look back in 10 or 20 years time and think what could have been or what I could have been. I want to provide a better life for my children, my husband and I.

Anyway, I would be incredibly grateful for any advice that any of you could give me. Thanks so much.

spurious

Is there a possibility of a night degree in the course you want?

Conois

This course is available as a night course, its for 2 nights a week for the 3 years which sounds great too, the problem is that I'm terrified that having the kids, working and doing the course will all get on top of me as I have done three other night courses before at FETAC Level 6 and found it quite hard to juggle everything and have assignments completed on time. This course is a BA in Applied Social Studies in Social Care . My thinking (in the sense of returning to College fulltime) is that I would be in College the 5 days per week and could complete some of my work there prior to coming home and being the "Mammy".

I probably am being difficult in that I could do the course in the evening time but I sort of had my heart set at returning fulltime. I know the night option makes more sense but I just feel that the daytime would allow me more time to study/complete assignments.

spurious

If you could get some financial assistance it would make a huge difference. Perhaps you should ask SUSI if you're entitled to anythng. A shortage of money would be a disaster waiting to happen. AFAIK if you don't have a previous degree you can get some assistance, but I'm not an expert on that.
http://www.susi.ie/

JoeR91

Conois wrote: »

Hi everyone, just looking for some advice please.

I'm looking at returning to College in September. I'm 34 years old and employed on a part time basis in a job which I have held for 11 years.

I'm extremely nervous about approaching this subject with my OH as obviously, like every household in the country, money is tight. We have a mortgage and 3 young children and everything that goes along with that (financially I mean). My OH has always been extremely supportive about different night courses etc that I have attended however this is different, this will be a full time course for 3 years!

I am wondering if anyone could tell me about grants that I might be entitled to or anything else that I may be entitled to. I suppose what I'm most afraid of is that I will be leaving my job after all these years and going into the unknown however I absolutely cannot allow myself to continue in a job that I hate so much for the sake of money. It dominates every aspect of our lives and I don't want to look back in 10 or 20 years time and think what could have been or what I could have been. I want to provide a better life for my children, my husband and I.

Anyway, I would be incredibly grateful for any advice that any of you could give me. Thanks so much.

You could be entitled to BTEA. In terms of financial assistance SUSI take your income and your husbands income would be taken into account when they are deciding if your entitled to a grant. The SUSI grant is broken up into 3 parts also the maintenance part which is paid out monthly into your bank account and also covers your student contribution charge which in 2015/2016 academic year will be €3000. If you qualify for BTEA you will only be entitled to the fees grant from SUSI which will pay for your student contribution again and your income weekly will be from your BTEA. And the third part is the tuition fees. I'm not 100% but you said your currently working so there is a possibility you could get no financial assistance and face having to put yourself though college out of your own pocket. But don't let that put you off if you really want to go back to provide for your family as you said go for it

Dair76

JoeR91 wrote: »

You could be entitled to BTEA. In terms of financial assistance SUSI take your income and your husbands income would be taken into account when they are deciding if your entitled to a grant. The SUSI grant is broken up into 3 parts also the maintenance part which is paid out monthly into your bank account and also covers your student contribution charge which in 2015/2016 academic year will be €3000. If you qualify for BTEA you will only be entitled to the fees grant from SUSI which will pay for your student contribution again and your income weekly will be from your BTEA. And the third part is the tuition fees. I'm not 100% but you said your currently working so there is a possibility you could get no financial assistance and face having to put yourself though college out of your own pocket. But don't let that put you off if you really want to go back to provide for your family as you said go for it

Just to add to this, to qualify for BTEA (Back to Education Allowance), you have to be in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment for at least 9 months if you're going to study a third level course (3 months if you're going to study at 2nd level, iirc).

Conois

Thanks everyone for your replies, they've really helped me a lot.

Just in relation to the social welfare payment...I've be receiving Job Seekers Benefit since I was put on part time last February. I presume this counts?

Dair76

Conois wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your replies, they've really helped me a lot.

Just in relation to the social welfare payment...I've be receiving Job Seekers Benefit since I was put on part time last February. I presume this counts?

Yeah, JSA/JSB counts. Not sure what rate you receive though, but definitely check it out!

Conois

Dair76 wrote: »

Yeah, JSA/JSB counts. Not sure what rate you receive though, but definitely check it out!

That's great thanks a million. I'm going to get onto them Monday and get the ball rolling. Thanks again to you all for your help

JoeR91

Conois wrote: »

That's great thanks a million. I'm going to get onto them Monday and get the ball rolling. Thanks again to you all for your help

The rate for BTEA is €188 I'm on it at the moment

Dair76

Does it not depend on how much you were receiving on your qualifying payment though? That is, it won't be €188 for everyone.

JoeR91

Dair76 wrote: »

Does it not depend on how much you were receiving on your qualifying payment though? That is, it won't be €188 for everyone.

If you under 25 your BTEA payment is €160. Anyone over 25 gets a payment of €188 regardless what your qualifying payment was before hand. before going on BTEA this year I was only getting €100 week then I went up to €188.

acon2119

If its what you really want to do you'll find a way, particularly if you have support from your family. If your in college full-time you will have free periods in between lectures and can go to the library to get some work done on your assignments so that you have less to do at home. The three years will fly by and you will be glad you did it. Good luck and best wishes to you.

fairp

JoeR91 wrote: »

If you under 25 your BTEA payment is €160. Anyone over 25 gets a payment of €188 regardless what your qualifying payment was before hand. before going on BTEA this year I was only getting €100 week then I went up to €188.

This is not true for all. I know someone who got €39 a week and still gets that on BTEA.
good luck