How are applications processed?
As education disadvantage is a complex issue, you will be assessed on a range of indicators relating to your financial, social and cultural circumstances.
Click on each indicator below for more detailed information:
Financial Indicators
- Income:The total gross income of your parent(s) or guardian(s) for the year ending 31 December 2010 is within the income limits that would make you eligible for a Higher Education Grant.
- Medical Card:
You or your parent(s) or Guardian(s) had a Medical Card or GP Visit Card on 31 December 2010.
- Social Welfare Payment:
In the year ending 31 December 2010, your parent(s) or guardian(s) recieved a means-tested social assistance payment(s) from the Department of Social Protection for at least 26 weeks in a row..
Social and Cultural Indicators:
- Socio-economic Group:
You belong to a group that is under-represented in higher education
based on the occupation and employment status of your parent(s) or guardian(s). At the moment the group includes non-manual workers; semi & unskilled manual workers and agricultural workers.
- School:
You completed five years in a secondary school that takes part in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) scheme run by the Department of Education & Skills.
- Area:
You live in an area (urban or rural) in which there is concentrated disadvantage and social exclusion
- in other words, an area where, for example, there is high unemployment and poverty and very few facilities for the community.
To be eligible for the HEAR Scheme you must meet the Low Income indicator (no. 1) plus a combination of two other indicators.
Combinations that allow you to take part in the HEAR Scheme are:
INDICATOR 1 plus 2 plus 4 or 5 or 6
INDICATOR 1 plus 3 plus 4 or 5 or 6
INDICATOR 1 plus 4 plus 5 or 6