SUSI special rate of maintenance 2026/27: who qualifies and what it pays

The three conditions

SUSI sets out three tests for the special rate. You need all of them:

1. You qualify for the ordinary grant. Nationality, residency, an approved course and progression, the same as every other applicant.
2. Household reckonable income for 2025 is under the special rate threshold. €28,600 with fewer than 4 dependent children, €31,350 with 4 to 7, €33,980 with 8 or more. Add €4,950 for each other family member in a full-time further or higher education course.
3. On 31 December 2025 the household income included an eligible long-term Department of Social Protection payment (or its equivalent from another EU member state). The date is fixed: a payment that started in January 2026 does not count for 2026/27.

Not sure whether your income lands under €28,600? Before you apply, tick “long-term social welfare payment” in the student grant calculator and enter your 2025 income: it applies the special rate test first, exactly as SUSI does, then falls back to Bands 1 to 4.

What the special rate pays in 2026/27

For 2026/27 the non-adjacent special rate went up by €350 and the income threshold rose to €28,600. Payment dates are the same as for every other band: see the payment schedule.

Eligible long-term payments: the full list

This is SUSI’s own list for 2026/27, grouped the way SUSI groups it. One eligible payment in the household on 31 December 2025 is enough. It does not have to be paid to the student.

Social assistance payments

• Bereaved Partner’s (Non-Contributory) Pension (formerly Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s)
• Blind Pension
• Carer’s Allowance
• One Parent Family Payment
• Jobseeker’s Allowance Transition
• Deserted Wife’s Allowance
• Disability Allowance
• Farm Assist
• Jobseeker’s Allowance, for a period of 65 consecutive weeks of unemployment
• State Pension (Non-Contributory)
• Guardian’s Payment (Non-Contributory)
• Pre-Retirement Allowance
• Supplementary Welfare Allowance, where held for 12 consecutive calendar months
• Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit (new from 2026/27)

Social insurance payments

• Bereaved Partner’s (Contributory) Pension
• Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds
• Carer’s Benefit
• Deserted Wife’s Benefit
• Invalidity Pension
• Occupational Injuries Death Benefit (Orphan’s Pension, or Pension for a Widow or Widower)
• State Pension (Contributory) and State Pension (Transition)
• Guardian’s Payment (Contributory)
• Jobseeker’s Benefit, when combined with other eligible payments to make 65 consecutive weeks
• Disablement Benefit (new from 2026/27)

Designated programmes

• Back to Education Allowance (second and third level options)
• Back to Work Allowance (employees) and Back to Work Enterprise Allowance
• Community Employment Scheme
• Rural Social Scheme
• Tús Initiative and Gateway Scheme
• Further Education and Training (FET) courses, including apprenticeships
• Part Time Job Incentive Scheme
• Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS)

Others

• Foster Care and Aftercare Allowances, or Adoption Maintenance Allowance, paid in respect of the applicant
• Independent Living Allowance for Young People in Residential Care
• Working Family Payment (formerly Family Income Supplement)
• Fastrack to IT (FIT) payments equivalent to a social welfare payment
• Partial Capacity Benefit with an underlying entitlement to Invalidity Pension
• Training courses approved by a Government department, state agency or area partnership, where the participant was on an eligible payment before starting
• Grant-aided employees in Community Services Programmes

Incapacity Supplement was eligible for 2025/26 only and is not on the 2026/27 list.

The 65-week rule for jobseekers

Jobseeker’s Allowance and Jobseeker’s Benefit only count after 65 consecutive weeks of unemployment. SUSI lets you combine periods on Jobseeker’s Allowance, Jobseeker’s Benefit and the other eligible payments to reach the 65 weeks. Illness Benefit and Maternity Benefit are not eligible payments themselves, but a spell on either can bridge two jobseeker periods, as long as a jobseeker payment came directly before and directly after it. Time on JobBridge can be bridged the same way.

Child Dependent Allowance can bring you under the line

If the household is a little over the threshold, the Child Dependent Allowance (Qualified Child Increase) paid as part of a Department of Social Protection payment can be deducted from reckonable income for the special rate test. Two limits: it cannot be deducted from payments SUSI already disregards, and it cannot be used to reach any other threshold, only the special rate one.

Assessed at an ordinary band instead?

“Special Rate” is one of the listed grounds for asking SUSI to look again. SUSI publishes no time limit for a review; an appeal must reach SUSI within 30 days of the decision. Upload proof of the qualifying payment on 31 December 2025. The steps are in the SUSI appeal guide.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: the special rate conditions and payment list at susi.ie, the 2026/27 rate table on the SUSI undergraduate thresholds page, and SUSI’s 1 April 2026 news item on the 2026/27 changes. All checked on 22 September 2026.