advice on back to education allowance

hi all i was wondering if you could help me with this problem. i am in second year of a two year cert which i started back on 14 september, i was on beta for first year and i got a job for the summer months, i sent in letters from the college to say i was back in college but heard nothing back so i went in to see them last week and they said because i didint sign on during the summer my claim was closed, but i was working during the summer so why would i sign on? they said i need to reopen my claim (jobseekers) before i can go on beta but as im in college i cant apply for jobseekers, it says on the website im allowed work during the summer and will still get it so i dont understand, i asked 3 people in the social welfare office and they all told me the same thing, any advice would be very appriciated

My son had the same problem during the summer, was on BTEA last year and when he went to apply again, they told him the same as yourself, that he was not entitled. He went to the local citizens advice center, who rang Longford directly, to a nice lady called Lilly who is the head of BTEA allowance there. She told him exactly what to do and that he was entitled to his claim. He was told to ask for the person dealing with BTEA in his local SW office not just the person on the counter, each office has a person dealing specially with BTEA. He got it all sorted in the end, but if you have to bypass your local SW office first, do so.

A lot of staff in SW offices have been moved in from other sections of the CS, and are not fully up on the knowledge on all aspects of SW, haven't been trained properly really and dont realise the damage they are inflicting on peoples live by not knowing.

Check out welfare.ie for BTEA details and phone numbers.