More money to cushion the loss of purchasing power. Photo Shutterstock This is revealed in leaked plans for the national budget for next year. The plans aim to somewhat ease the effects of the loss of purchasing power. The increased grant for students living away from home will cost 250 million per annum, according to RTL Nieuws. The precise amount per student is not revealed.
Where the money to pay for the increase is to come from has also not been stated. If the costs are to be covered by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, it will likely mean cutbacks in research and education, for which many hundreds of millions were recently earmarked.
The basic student grant is to be reinstated as of September 2023 for those students that are eligible: students in their formal study duration. Students who exceed the standard study duration do not qualify for the basic grant.
The Dutch budget institute Nibud reported this week that the high inflation rate also severely impacts students and, in some cases, their parents. If a student’s parents make one-and-a-half times the average income (3,843 euros per month after taxes), they are not eligible for a supplementary grant. In this case, the parents will have to economise severely to cough up the parental contribution.
Energy allowance
The Cabinet is taking additional measures. According to RTL Nieuws, the measure through which lower-income families are currently provided with a 1,300-euro compensation for the high energy prices is to be continued into next year. Poor households will also receive this supplement next year, which is good news for students who may be eligible due to their low income. This summer, the court ruled in favour of a student in a case against the Nijmegen municipal administration. How this ruling affects other students remains to be seen, but Wageningen students have the municipality on their side, ‘in principle’, according to a spokesperson. The ‘funds and personnel to process all the applications’ are currently lacking, however.
The minimum wages will be increased by 10 per cent as of 1 January, which will positively impact students with a side job. Moreover, the care allowance will be raised by 35 euros per month, and housing benefits are also to be increased.
Leaked
The plans for the National Budget are normally divulged on Prince’s Day, the third Tuesday in September. However, it had become a tradition for the plans to be leaked ahead of time.
Minister Dijkgraaf announced this week that tuition fees would increase less rapidly than was assumed. The ministry stressed, however, that this is the result of an improvement in the system and not a measure to alleviate the loss of purchasing power. Tuition fees will be increased by 105 euros in September 2023.
