Educational support - Court: Bafög rate must not be below citizen's allowance
The height of the BAföG grant for students in 2021, according to the Administrative Court of Berlin, has violated the Basic Law. The amount of the basic need set for students in 2021 at 427 Euro was too low, as it was significantly lower than the need level of Hartz IV in the amount of 446 Euro, the court stated. Since the Administrative Court itself is not authorized to determine the unconstitutionality of a parliamentary law, the proceedings were suspended and referred to the Federal Constitutional Court for decision.
The Administrative Court ruled that the requirements for students under BAföG, according to the Federal Training Assistance Act (BAföG), were inconstitutionally low. In addition to the amount of the basic need, the amount of the housing need of 325 Euro was also too low, as more than half of the students in the summer semester 2021 had monthly rent expenses of 351 Euro or more, which was approximately 20% of 400 to 500 Euro and another 20% above 500 Euro. Furthermore, a comparison of housing costs as a benchmark could not be taken as an average of housing costs throughout the entire federal territory.
The Administrative Court also identified serious methodological errors in the determination of the needs. A 29-year-old student, who has been studying at Charité University Medicine since 2016, brought the action.
- The student, who was studying in Berlin, argued that the educational support they received through BAföG was insufficient, as the Basic Law's minimum requirement for citizen's income, such as Hartz IV, was exceeded.
- The administrative court found judgments indicating that the basic and housing needs allocated to students under the BAföG scheme were constitutionally inadequate, affecting many students with higher rent expenses.
- In light of these findings, the court suggested that a more comprehensive review of the educational support system, including the BAföG grant, should be conducted to ensure it meets the needs of all students across Germany.
- Due to the importance of this issue, the case was escalated to the Federal Constitutional Court for a binding decision, impacting education policies and financial support for students nationwide.
