Right-wing parties scrap 164-euro bonus to basic grant

In the current academic year, students welcomed the return of the basic student grant after a gap of eight years. Students living away from their parents also had a temporary bonus of 164 euros a month to help them cope with a steep rise in inflation.

However, the House of Representatives has now decided to put an end to that increase. Parties D66 and SP proposed extending the support for one more year, but right-wing parties voted against this amendment.

To be precise, students not living with their parents currently receive 466.69 euros a month. That amount will now fall to 302.39 euros from the next academic year on. For students still living with their parents, nothing will change. They currently receive a monthly payment of 121.33 euros.

Incidentally, these amounts do not include the supplementary grant that students can obtain if their parents' income is below a certain threshold. The maximum supplementary grant is 457.60 euros a month.

Student organisations fired off an urgent letter to the House of Representatives earlier this week (in Dutch, Ed.). They argue that the additional income support should continue, not least because they see the standard basic grant as too low in any case.

To fund the one-year extension, D66 and SP wanted to tap into unused reserves in another ministerial budget. However, outgoing education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf disapproved of the plan. “Reallocating resources in this way is not within our remit of a caretaker government”, he insisted.