Icon: enlarge
Waitress in bar: Many jobs are lost due to Corona (archive)
Photo: Caroline Seidel / picture alliance / dpa
The part-time job has broken down and now the rent is running out: The Federal Ministry of Education is helping students who are in financial distress due to Corona.
In November and December almost 83,000 applications for this emergency aid were submitted to the student unions in Germany.
The number was announced by the German Student Union (DSW) on Tuesday.
Since November 20, the so-called bridging aid from the Federal Ministry of Education can be applied for again.
It expired at the end of September because the corona situation had eased in summer.
Of the applications submitted in November, 65 percent were approved, and 74 percent of the applications processed so far from December.
Around 21 million euros have already been paid out.
Students have to submit the application every month.
Depending on the account balance, there are 100 to a maximum of 500 euros per month that do not have to be paid back.
DSW General Secretary Achim Meyer auf der Heyde pointed out that the emergency aid is initially limited to the end of the winter semester: "We cannot move from bridging aid to bridging aid," he said according to the announcement.
He also reiterated the demand to open student loans in crisis situations like this to students in need.
Between June and September, 244,000 requests for emergency aid were made.
At that time, 63 percent of the applications were approved and 36 percent rejected.
According to the report, in more than half of the rejected applications, the students were in financial distress, but they were unable to prove that this emergency situation was a direct consequence of the pandemic.
In addition to the emergency aid fund, the Ministry of Education also facilitated access to student loans during the corona crisis.
Icon: The mirror
kha / dpa
