To think this is ludicrous, college grants!

[PunnyOliveTurtle]

I have relations in Ireland and I was on the phone to a cousin. We were chatting about Christmas and plans, etc just having a catch up. Her daughter is in university and she’s excited about her coming home as she hasn’t seen her in a few weeks. (they seem to go home and all that over there!) anyway we were talking about university costs and it turns out her daughter gets a grant. Now I know my cousin is very well off. She is very aware that she is well off and she doesn’t hide that . She lives with her partner and they both earn well, as she is separated from her daughter’s dad. So I was surprised to hear that her daughter gets a grant, it turns out she gets the grant because they registered her to live at her dad’s address. Her dad is on one income which is still quite significant in my opinion. Approximately 70k! Because of this she gets a part of the grant, not the full grant!. The rest of her university has funded through her mother. AIBU to think that this is very unfair? And a bit of an abuse of their system?

Well, if the daughter lives with her dad at any point in the year, then I suppose they’re not breaking any rules… if that’s the system then that’s the system.

I’m sure loads of people register their child at the lower earning parent so they can get a bigger loan here, and that’s when the child still has to pay back the money, so hardly surprising people do the same if it’s a grant.

If she doesn’t actually live at her dad’s house then it is indeed an abuse of the system.

Regarding the fairness of grant allocation, it is best to accept that there is never going to be 100% fair way of doing it because it’s just not feasible to assess people on a case-by-case basis. So as with any system, there will always be individuals who get grants when perhaps they shouldn’t, or miss out when they should.

She lives at her dads 50% of the time as far as I know…but I still think it’s very unfair!