{"id":173877,"date":"2024-11-27T16:29:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T15:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=173877"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:37","slug":"minister-will-not-repair-students-purchasing-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/11\/27\/minister-will-not-repair-students-purchasing-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister will not repair students\u2019 purchasing power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Due to the end of a temporary purchasing power measure, students now have less to spend, Minister Eppo Bruins has acknowledged. However, he sees no reason for additional measures, he wrote to the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

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After the massive inflation in 2022, students living away from home received an extra allowance for one year: 164 euros per month, on top of the basic grant. But in September this year, the flow of money stopped, leaving students living away from home with a 6.6 per cent loss in purchasing power, calculated<\/a> the Nibud, the National Institute for Family Finance Information.<\/p>\n

Unacceptable, said student unions, but the minister believes this is no reason to intervene. \u201cI can imagine that students are alarmed by this loss of purchasing power, but I want to emphasise that the temporary purchasing power measure was an exceptional measure in a time of exceptionally high inflation\u201d, Bruins wrote<\/a> to the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Basic grant adjusted for inflation<\/h2>

Moreover, the basic grant is adjusted for inflation. At the beginning of this year, Bruins stated, the grant was increased by 10 per cent. For students in higher professional education (hbo) and at university, this amounts to nearly seventy euros per month for those living away from home.<\/p>\n

Bruins therefore sees \u2018no reason\u2019 to change the student finance policy. However, he does want to investigate why so many vocational education (MBO) students fail to claim financial support. Twelve per cent of students in levels 1 and 2 do not apply for a basic or supplementary grant, even though these are automatically gifts for them (from level 3 up to higher education, the performance grant is only a gift if students graduate within ten years).<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents living at home are missing out on around five hundred euros per month, while those living away from home are missing out on as much as eight hundred euros\u201d, Bruins wrote. \u201cI find this very concerning, but I do not yet have an explanation for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Distrust<\/h2>

Over the past few years, this \u2018non-usage\u2019 among vocational students has even increased, Bruins wrote. \u201cIt is possible that a lack of knowledge about the student finance system or distrust in the government plays a role here.\u201d He has commissioned an investigation into the matter.<\/p>\n

Distrust could indeed be a factor among vocational students. Not only were many lower- and secondary-educated people affected by the childcare benefits scandal, but DUO\u2019s unjustified fraud investigations also primarily targeted students in vocational education.<\/p>\n

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Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t