Covid-19: New funding to support students facing hardship

More than £10m in funding is to be made available to support students in NI who are facing hardship due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It forms part of additional allocations agreed by the executive to deal with funding that must be spent by the end of March.

Any unspent funds would need to be returned to the Treasury.

More than £100m in funding bids were signed off by the executive on Tuesday, Finance Minister Conor Murphy said.

Last week, the minister said about £430m remained unspent by the executive.

Of that, almost £300m of this was Covid funding.

Other money had been handed back by departments in what is known as a monitoring round.

Mr Murphy had urged ministers to table "urgent" bids to try and allocate some of the money, while asking Westminster to provide clarity to carry over any remaining funds into 2021/22.

On Tuesday, he said new funding bids had been approved by the executive.

They include:

• £10.4m for the Student Hardship Fund

• £1.7m for further education colleges to help with remote learning costs

• £12m to extend some existing business support schemes for firms forced to close during the lockdown

• £2.2m for Belfast International and Belfast City airports

• £1.7m of capital funding for the Belfast City Hospital site and £1m for the NI Ambulance Service fleet

• £15 million for public transport provider Translink

• £26.1m for the Housing Executive to deal with maintenance and supplier relief costs, and to offset the loss of rent income for landlords

• £35.4m towards a pay settlement for teachers

Mr Murphy, along with his Scottish and Welsh counterparts, has written to the Treasury to ask for flexibility carrying over money into the next financial year.

Economy Minister Diane Dodds said she intended to announce further support for students affected by the pandemic later in the week.

"I have been clear that I am acutely aware of the hardship being faced by students in our local higher education institutions at the moment," she added.

"It is vital that the institutions distribute this funding to those in need without delay."

Mrs Dodds' department runs many of the financial support schemes for businesses struggling during the pandemic.

The minister said she had requested additional flexibility to be able to allocate more resources should lockdown restrictions be extended further.

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Last month, Mr Murphy published a draft budget for 2021/22 and described it as "difficult".

It is broadly flat in cash terms for government departments, setting aside additional funding to deal with Covid-19 and as part of the New Decade, New Approach agreement.