Single parent and student wants changes to education allowances

Single parent and third-level psychology student Dawn Higgins from Naas, Co Kildare, is hoping for major changes to education allowances today, ones that will keep her in college.

Now 33, she is currently in her third year at Maynooth, and hopes to pursue a post-graduate degree in order to qualify as an educational psychologist.

However, the big stumbling block for mature students such as Higgins is the lack of support for unemployed people who want to go on to or stay in college.

“I am probably going to have to leave education. I will be working in Tesco or Aldi. I currently get family income support [FIS] and they talk about ‘activating’ people. But they only support your education for the first three years. And then you end up back at Tesco.”

Sometimes she thinks she would be better off if she sat "on the couch and watched Jeremy Kyle" every morning. "I'd get rent allowance and lone parents if I sat on the sofa. Instead I am paying for the crèche or day-care for my three-year-old son Aidan.

“I am hoping to become an educational psychologist. That’s my absolute dream. The course to become an educational psychologist is €10,000 in UCD. In Belfast they pay your fees and you get a stipend. The way things are going all the students will end up going to the UK. It is a horrendous situation.”

Meanwhile, back-to-work schemes must be overhauled.

“I know a software engineer whose company went bust and he had to attend a workshop where a woman explained what Google was. He had to attend this class to get his dole. But he was taking up the place of someone who needed it. They don’t care about people getting jobs. Or they expect people to take cleaning jobs or else have their dole cut.”

Higgins pays €60 a week for childcare, helped by a subsidy from the community childcare subvention. “Without support I would be paying €300 a week. I am trying to get an education to better myself, but if I was sitting at home I wouldn’t have to be paying €60 a week.

“I would be better off if I did nothing. I would have more money in my pocket. I get no help with paying for books. Four years ago I had a €500 stipend for books.