Hardship payouts to university students further delayed

It now looks as if bridging aid for students in Germany facing financial hardship owing to the coronavirus crisis won’t be paid out before July, owing to administrative and technical constraints.

The German National Association for Student Affairs (Deutsches Studentenwerk or DSW) and the federal education ministry (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung or BMBF) had announced that applications for a non-repayable allowance of up to €500 (US$562) a month for the months of June, July and August could be submitted as of 16 June, and that, following administrative and technical preparations, students could reckon with payments from 25 June onwards.

Under the bridging aid measure, students with less than €100 in their account are entitled to €500, whereas those with between €400 and €499 are to receive €100. Anyone above the €499 limit will not be eligible for support. Applications are on a monthly basis, and new ones can be submitted should the emergency financial situation carry on. Students have to supply sufficient proof of economic hardship.

“According to the current state of planning, our student service organisations are to commence processing of applications on 29 June 2020,” says DSW Secretary General Achim Meyer auf der Heyde, explaining that staff training for processing is still in progress.

Within the first 24 hours after the bridging aid portal had been opened, 31,200 students had already filed applications for support. In all, 54,000 applications had been received by 22 June, for which up to €23 million of the total of €100 million provided by the BMBF will be required.

Around 60% of the 54,000 students filing so far applied for €500, 20% for €400 and 20% for €300 or less. The DSW is unable to predict how the application statistics will develop and whether the money available will be enough for all applications.

The federal government had already been discussing emergency support for students affected financially by the coronavirus crisis in mid-March, but it was not until the end of April that Education Minister Anja Karliczek came up with a bridging aid programme for students facing extreme financial hardship.

Michael Gardner, E-mail: michael.gardner@uw-news.com