Romanian Saxion student wins lawsuit against Ministry of Education: he did have a right to study financing
Good news from the court for a Romanian Saxion student; according to the court of Overijssel he is entitled to study financing. The (former) student took DUO to court, because according to DUO he had not worked enough to be eligible for stufi, and during his internship he would not be eligible either. The court disagreed last week and ruled in favor of the student on all points.
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Therefore, for the months July to September 2019, the student is still entitled to a supplementary study allowance of almost 400 euros per month, while the DUO, the organization responsible for study financing, had initially withdrawn the allowance.
Students from the EU must work an average of 56 hours per month in the Netherlands to be entitled to study financing and free public transport. Incidentally, two national student organizations recently objected to this; they consider 56 hours (14 hours per week) unfeasible next to a full-time study.
From February 2019 to July 2019, the student worked as a student assistant at Saxion University, but also as a production worker in a factory. From September 1, 2019 to December of that year, he did a full-time internship at Saxion, as a required part of his studies. In August of that year he did not work; at that time the student was on vacation.
56 hours
According to DUO, the student worked less than 56 hours in July of that year, and not at all in August. Therefore, according to the service, he was not entitled to study financing during those months. According to the government agency, this also applies to his internship; according to DUO, students are only entitled to study financing during their internship if they were also entitled to study financing the month before, which, according to DUO, the student in question did not have in August.
Previously, DUO partly reversed this. On closer inspection, the student was still entitled to study financing for July, according to the institution, because in that month he had still worked through a temporary employment agency. According to DUO, this did not apply to the internship; the internship agreement would show that this was not an employment contract, but that learning was the primary focus.
The student in turn indicated that he did not work in August because of a vacation; the regulations specifically allow for this. Moreover, he thought it unfair that DUO did not look at the total number of hours worked and drew an average for this; then the numbers would show he worked almost 80 hours per month on average.
DUO should have investigated
The court ruled in his favor on all points. A factor in this decision was that DUO had initially granted study financing, but withdrew it later. The burden of proof therefore lay with DUO. They should have made it plausible that the student was not eligible, but did not do so sufficiently according to the court. For example, DUO did not investigate his internship address to see if the student actually worked there, although they could have done so.
According to the court, the student was also right in that DUO should have looked at the average hours worked, taking into account a maximum of one month's vacation or illness.
Therefore, the student will after all receive his student grant for the months May 2019 to September 2019. The Ministry of Education must also pay the student all legal costs, in total just over 2,100 euros.
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