Sir, - I wish to comment on the lack of allowances for mature students who have not been out of work for more than six months prior to starting/resuming full-time education.
For mature students who have been unemployed for longer than six months, there is an abundance of allowances available, in the form of rent/food allowances, social welfare assistance, etc. In the majority of these cases, a mature student receives, on average, £110 per week.
On the other hand, people who work up until the day they resume full-time education are not entitled to receive any State assistance.
I fall into this category. I find it extremely hard to believe that, although I was in a reasonably well-paid job in a well known multinational company, and have paid a large amount of tax since leaving secondary education, now, when I require to further my education so that I can enhance my future employment prospects, I am, in a way, punished for such a move.
In this present booming economy, the more people who have a higher level of education, such as a degree, the better able the country is to sustain the boom.
Is it not in the country's best interests that those of us who have gained PC/electronics industry experience and want to enhance this with a degree should be supported at least on the same level as those who were unemployed before returning to education? This seems to me to be a fair and reasonable question. - Yours, etc.,
Jim Gill, South Circular Road, Dublin 8.