A woman going back into education said she's been excluded from several grants because she works part-time.
It comes as new research from national adult learning organisation Aontas suggests people are being forced to choose between heating their homes or staying in education.
Some 41% of people participating in adult education said they are struggling to pay for household bills and meals.
Almost one-third of people surveyed said they need greater financial support to remain in education.
Paula McLoughlin from Clondalkin is a mature student returning to study Community Development at Maynooth University.
She told Newstalk Breakfast she can't go back and study full-time.
"Returning to education now will be really difficult for me because I work full-time [and] I'm not in the position to attend college full-time," she said.
"I need to go back as a part-time learner to Maynooth two evenings a week and because of that I won't qualify for a lot of the grants that are available to full-time learners".
'Real need for education'
Ms McLoughlin said the pandemic was a wake-up call for her.
"I suppose the pandemic highlighted to me the real need for education and updating education," she said.
"I hadn't engaged in education since I left school in 1997 [and] went on three years of third-level.
"So it's the early 2000s since I was engaged in any formal education but it was just barrier after barrier.
"It's mainly financial [barriers] - at the time even buying a laptop would have been a huge issue for me."
'It's not always an option'
Ms McLoughlin said she's a single parent so didn't want to take money from the family.
"I'm a single parent so have to spend €1,000 maybe and an extra couple of hundred quid on top of that for programmes [like] Word and stuff like that - I'm taking that from the family's kitty," she said.
"It's not always an option [because] paying bills is my priority, the kids are my priority, paying rent."
Ms McLoughlin said her initial costs will be around €3,000 with "half of that is being paid [with] a Credit Union loan I'm going to take out".
"I have to factor in the travel expenses that I'll have back and forward to Maynooth on top of travel expenses I have for work already factored into the household budget," she said.
"I'm more than happy to bear some of the costs - well I'm bearing all the costs myself.
"I think it's of more benefit and a better use of funds to help somebody better themselves.
"I can pay that back in the coming years in increased income and tax will increase down the line with that".
She added that education is "a very positive" impact to bring into a household and a community.
