Prisoners received student grants

 

Ministers have closed a loophole which allowed inmates to claim hundreds of thousands of pounds in student loans and maintenance grants.

Prisoners in England have received a total of £250,000 in maintenance grants since 1998 even though they do not have to pay for board and lodging.

 

Last year 91 inmates received £250,000 in loans which are repayable and £120,000 in grants which are not.

 

Universities Secretary John Denham says inmates' education is still an aim.

 

He has suspended all student support payments to prisoners with immediate effect.

 

The suspension relates only to England but Mr Denham has written to the devolved authorities "in case there are implications for them".

 

'Not appropriate'

 

In a statement to MPs, Mr Denham said: "Payments properly made under the student support regulations will have been in compliance with the law.

 

"However, I do not believe that it has ever been the intention of Parliament that prisoners, who are accommodated at public expense, should receive any additional form of financial support for maintenance.

 

"Nor do I believe that it is an appropriate use of public money."

 

At the moment it is not clear how much prisoners have been allowed to borrow in student loans - or if any of the money has been repaid.

 

'Prisoners are getting taxpayers' money to help with food and rent, when they're already being fed and housed at the taxpayers' expense' - David Willetts, Conservatives

 

Mr Denham said he had asked the Student Loans Company to investigate further so ministers could provide "a complete estimate" of the costs.

 

Educating offenders remained a government objective, he said.

 

"The education of offenders is an integral part of strategies to reduce re-offending.

 

"Improving the skills of offenders, helping them to move into jobs, is likely to help break the cycle of re-offending."

 

Shadow universities secretary David Willetts said: "This is the latest in a long line of Labour fiascos. Students struggling to make ends meet will rightly be outraged.

 

"Prisoners are getting taxpayers' money to help with food and rent, when they're already being fed and housed at the taxpayers' expense.

 

"Prisoners should be encouraged to learn and train whilst serving their sentence but not with grants designed to help students with their living costs."

 

Liberal Democrat universities spokesman Stephen Williams said: "No wonder students are on the breadline when the money meant to support them is being paid to serving criminals.

 

"Helping prisoners learn new skills is vital but it's madness to give them student grants for food and rent when they're already being looked after at Her Majesty's pleasure."

 

Source BBC News

 

I heard this the other day and couldn't believe that this had been happening. It's crazy! I've no problem with prisoners studying but for them to have been receiving maintenance grants was ridiculous :angry:

huh.... how can they claim that money for so long?....

 

ok if a prisoner wants to better themself then fair do's and help them, but only to cover the cost and not to make money on it!

Another day, another Govt screw-up exposed.... <_<

 

Bloody ridiculous.. These are MAINTENANCE grants. For rent. For food. For bills. For other expenses that hard-up students may incur... What the fukk does a prisoner who has free food, lodgings, gas and 'lecky need a fukkin Maintenance Grant for...?

 

This certainly never happened with the old system of student grants, so it absolutely baffles me just why the Govt didn't just bring back the old system, which actually WORKED, was actually means-tested (students' parents had to supply details of their incomes) and there were certainly no cases to my knowlege of prisoners receiving student grants (and yes, there were prisoners doing degrees back in the 80s and 90s...).

This'll no doubt be followed by a sharp downturn in the number of student prisoners.