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Students in the lecture hall: the number of Bafög recipients is to increase (archive 2014)
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Jan Woitas / dpa
Bafög recipients will receive more money in the winter semester.
The Bundestag decided on Thursday with the votes of the traffic light coalition and the left.
Accordingly, the Bafög rates for students will be increased by almost six percent.
Allowances and allowances are also significantly increased.
This is intended to increase the circle of those entitled to Bafög.
In the past ten years, the number of recipients has steadily decreased.
»The previous funding has excluded too many.
We are reversing this trend," said Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP).
The traffic light coalition had added something because of the inflation, originally a Bafög increase of five percent was planned.
Pupils and trainees also benefit.
The new regulations in detail
The Bafög rate for students will be raised from 427 to 452 euros per month.
Anyone who no longer lives with their parents can also get 360 euros instead of the previous 325 euros for the rent.
Students who have health and long-term care insurance themselves and no longer through their parents receive higher supplements.
In order to enlarge the group of recipients, 2415 euros of the monthly parental income should remain exempt from deductions.
So far it's 2000 euros.
Other allowances will also be increased, for example for married couples and students with children.
Under 30-year-olds should be allowed to own 15,000 euros, over 30-year-olds 45,000 euros, without this being counted towards the Bafög.
So far, the protective assets are generally 8200 euros.
Students should be able to earn 330 euros in a part-time job without affecting the Bafög amount.
At the moment it is 290 euros.
Students who already have children can in future receive a childcare allowance of EUR 160 per month instead of the previous EUR 150.
The money is intended for babysitters, for example, when there are courses in the evening.
If you want to start studying later, you can also get Bafög in the future.
The age limit is raised from 30 to 45 years.
Pupils and trainees who live abroad can in future receive 632 euros instead of the previous 585 euros.
Review: »A little cosmetics«
Student representatives and the German Student Union (DSW) find that the measures do not go far enough.
The federal government must quickly follow suit, said DSW Secretary General Matthias Anbuhl.
»The current increase of 5.75 percent is actually being eaten up again by inflation.
The requirement rates would have to be raised by at least 10 percent so that the students do not suffer a loss of purchasing power.«
The law would patch holes in the short term, said Lone Grotheer, board member of the umbrella organization of student representatives (fzs).
"This patchwork shouldn't distract from the fact that student loans urgently need a fundamental overhaul." Student poverty is increasing from semester to semester.
Left-wing politician Nicole Gohlke spoke in the Bundestag of "a bit of cosmetics" and accused the traffic light of being unworldly with a view to inflation.
"There's nothing left." CSU education politician Katrin Staffler called the law a "little reform" that didn't go far enough.
Union and AfD had voted against the Bafög increase.
The coalition defended the plan.
In the course of the reform of the student loans, two billion euros will be made available in the coming years.
The law that has now been passed is only the first step.
According to Ampel’s plans, the Bafög is to become more “parent-independent” in the long term, in that the basic child security plan planned by the SPD, Greens and FDP is paid directly to students – as the “basic pillar of study financing”.
fok/dpa