This submission outlines the delivery of a Claim, Payment and Entitlement Web Service to Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) from the Department of Social Protection (DSP).
SUSI is Ireland’s national awarding authority for higher and further education grants. This service (called DSP API) automatically injects real-time information from DSP’s systems into SUSI’s Grant Application System. This information is used to determine the income of the student so that maintenance or college fee grants can be decided at that point, without the need for further information requests. Innovation arising from this development has led to a transformation of SUSI’s Grant Application processing and delivered enhanced customer service, reduced costs, staff savings and significantly reduced processing times. This project enhanced data protection, replaced cumbersome data sharing processes and eliminated the need for dedicated clerical resources to compile information statements for 100,000+ grant applicants. As DSP is a key provider of information across the Public Sector, the DSP API design is implemented as a set of reusable web services that can be easily extended to other Government Departments/Agencies, with similar benefits being realized.