It remains to be seen how quickly the system will change, but the House of Representatives today almost unanimously supported a motion to make it easier for students to apply for the “study allowance”. Only the CDA voted against the motion.

No side job

This supplement (on top of the regular student grant) is intended for students who cannot have a side job because of a disability. Most students can get a job in, say, the hospitality industry just fine; it's different if you have a muscular disease, for example.

Granting the study allowance has been administered through municipalities since 2015, as part of the Participation Act. But information was poor and the amounts varied from one municipality to another. Many students apparently could not find the supplement even though they were eligible for it.

National service desk

Just open a national service desk at the Education Executive Service, was the plea of Ieder(in), the Dutch interest group for students with a disability or chronic illness. In politics, parties also regularly asked for it.

The government kept holding off, for unclear reasons, but things changed last week when Volt and ChristenUnie jointly introduced a motion to put the study allowance back in the hands of DUO.

In the debate, VVD Secretary of State Jurgen Nobel assigned the motion “judgment of the House”. In other words, he has no objection to the motion, “on the understanding that I may read this motion in such a way that I can work this out in more detail with DUO.” The student finance provider is busy and changing the system always takes time. So how soon the study allowance will run through DUO again cannot yet be predicted.

Hard to find

In 2022, six thousand students received the study allowance, a year later there were nine thousand. Ieder(in) thinks that many students cannot find the information properly and estimates that fourteen thousand students are actually entitled to it. Thus, many students would benefit from the new policy.

There may also be a downside: some students may lose out if this policy takes effect. National minimums have been in place since 2022. As of July 1, the amount is 148 euros for 17-year-olds, rising to 376 euros for those over 21. Certain municipalities give a higher supplement or give all students the higher amount, for example Amsterdam and Rotterdam.