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200 euros energy price flat rate: At some point the money should flow
Photo: Ute Grabowsky / photothek / IMAGO
Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) has repeatedly announced that the 200-euro one-time payment for students decided by the Bundestag should be paid out “as soon as possible”.
That should take place "this winter," according to a response from the federal government to a request from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, without specifying a date.
The federal government had already decided in November to provide support for 3.5 million students and technical students in view of the rising energy prices.
At that time there was talk of a payment from December, later only from the current winter.
To date, however, there is still no functioning online platform through which applications and permits can be processed.
As recently as Wednesday, Stark-Watzinger said in Berlin: "Now we're going to the home straight," without naming a specific date.
In the answer to the parliamentary question, the federal government now refers to the responsibility of the federal states - and thus indirectly to their responsibility for the sluggish process.
As part of the federal cooperation, however, they worked together »at high pressure« on the development of an application platform.
The aim is "a lean and unbureaucratic application process".
"Just embarrassing"
Left party leader Janine Wissler sharply criticized the long time it took for payments to begin.
"The announced emergency aid did not come immediately, nor has it been of any help so far," she explained.
"What Minister of Education Stark-Watzinger and her ministry are doing here is just embarrassing."
The minister had to make it clear "whether the 'end of winter' means the calendar, meteorological or simply a ministerial winter," said Wissler.
After students were simply forgotten in the first relief packages, “they are now being put on the back burner”.
The Deutsche Studierendenwerk (DSW) also criticizes the long period of time that has already passed.
"The federal and state governments have to deliver now," said DSW CEO Matthias Anbuhl of the "Stuttgarter Zeitung".
It is fatal that the students have not received any money so far, "although they now have the higher costs for gas and electricity".
The federal and state governments should no longer leave students in the dark as to when the money will flow.
»Otherwise politicians will gamble away the trust of the students.«
A technical challenge
The project and the coordination between the federal and state governments are also difficult because there is no central office that has all the data and account details of all students and technical students.
The federal and state governments are now trying to bring this data together on a common online platform so that the money can be applied for centrally there.
Criticism of the federal government also came from Bavaria's Science Minister Markus Blume.
The preparations were "more than tough".
"For the complex approval process itself, the federal states will now do everything they can to ensure that the students get the promised money as quickly as possible," said the CSU politician.
So the waiting for the students continues for the time being.
him/dpa/AFP
