‘Cabinet: basic grant of 255 euros per student away from home’

Students living at home receive, if decided by the cabinet, a basic grant of 91 euros per month. For students living away from home, the amount is 255 euros. This is what he writes AD Thursday, based on sources in The Hague. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science wants: NRC did not respond substantially to the reports and says the firm will send a letter on the plans on Friday.

The amounts mentioned for the basic grant are lower than those of its abolition in 2015. Under the old system, students living away from home received a grant of 286 euros per month, students living at home received 102 euros per month. A large majority in the House of Representatives voted in September to abolish the loan system, only the VVD voted against. The abolition of the student loan system is an agreement written into the government agreement. The cabinet wants all students to receive a basic scholarship again from the academic year 2023/2024.

The additional grant, intended for students whose parents or guardians have lower incomes, would amount to a maximum of 491 euros per month. According to AD the firm wants to compensate students of the so-called loan system generation of 359 euros per year studied, with a maximum compensation amount of 1,436 euros per student. These are students or graduates who did not receive a basic scholarship during their studies.

The amounts targeted by the government have not yet been determined. Cabinet proposals for the reintroduction of the basic grant will be discussed in Cabinet on Friday and the House of Representatives is expected to debate the plans next month. According to the newspaper, Parliament will also be presented with calculated alternatives for, for example, the compensation scheme.

Students who borrow under the loan system do so for an average of 700 euros per month. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the average student debt was above 15,000 euros in 2020, the prognosis is that it will rise to 25,000 euros in the coming years. Statistics Netherlands says average student debt is increasing every year and has more than doubled since the loan system was introduced in 2015.