Rotterdam student wins energy allowance case

The municipality of Rotterdam was not allowed to exclude students from the energy allowance for people on a low income. On appeal, a student has now been vindicated by the court.

In 2022, energy prices shot up. To ease the pain, the government gave people on a low income an energy allowance of 1,300 euros. But the government didn’t need to give students that allowance, the then cabinet believed.

The reasoning was, in short: although students do indeed have a low income, they usually live in small accommodations and therefore have lower energy costs than people on the minimum who, for example, live in a house with a whole family.

Some students found that argument weak and still demanded an allowance from their municipalities, which had to distribute the money. It led to a stream of court cases. Sometimes students won, sometimes they lost.

Equal treatment

In Rotterdam, a student was initially unsuccessful in court, but he lodged an appeal. The Central Board of Appeal now judges differently. The municipality must make a new decision on awarding the energy allowance.

You cannot exclude students simply because they are students, the judges say. Equal cases must be treated equally under European treaties, including when you distribute allowances.

The student could apply for special assistance, but that was less straightforward and therefore not sufficient for the Central Board of Appeal. The municipality must give a better explanation for rejecting the claim or grant the money after all.

Low income

The ruling is important for similar cases now and in the future. A low income is a low income, the judges say, even if you are studying. You cannot simply treat students differently from other citizens.

But it remains a borderline case. In a case involving a student from Amsterdam, the Central Board of Appeal judged differently, because that student did not have an energy contract in his own name. The municipality was allowed to impose that requirement on students, the judges found.

Difficult

The cabinet also realised that excluding students was legally difficult. It took measures for the following year (when the energy allowance amounted to 800 euros). In 2023/2024, students living away from home received an extra basic grant of 164 euros.

In addition, some students received an energy allowance of 400 euros in 2023 through the student finance agency DUO. This money only went to students living away from home who had a supplementary grant. They were thought to be less able to fall back on their parents if they ran into financial problems because of their energy bills.