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220. Mr. Healy-Rae   asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the means test which has a threshold of approximately ?25,000 for third level students does not take into account mortgage repayments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3765/02]
Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods): Under the terms of the student support schemes, a candidate's reckonable income for the purposes of the means test is his-her gross income from all sources and the gross income of his-her parents or guardians where applicable. The following social welfare and health board payments are excluded when calculating a candidate's reckonable income: child benefit; family income supplement; disability allowance, where paid to the candidate; blind pension, where paid to the candidate; means tested one parent family payments; orphan's pension; back to education allowance; foster care allowance; domiciliary care allowance and carer's allowance.
The terms of the student support schemes, which are uniformly applied, do not allow for personal expenses such as mortgage or loan repayments to be taken into account when assessing income.
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