Won by the ÖH: With the help of the ÖH, the student now continues to receive the study grant for his master’s degree – despite the original rejection.
Student U receives tuition assistance for both his bachelor’s degree and the first year of his master’s degree. Unexpectedly, he is now being denied tuition assistance for the second year of his master’s program – in the winter semester of 2020. U is dependent on the aid and needs support.
U learns that the reason for the rejection of the study grant by the study grant authority is his father’s income from the calendar year 2019 – used by the authority. His father’s employment was terminated in December 2019. In the course of this, he receives a severance payment. Since this is now added to the father’s income, U should no longer be entitled to the student grant. It is not taken into account that his father has been receiving a very low unemployment benefit since January 2020 and will start his pension in December 2020. The family’s financial situation is strained and the parents fear that they will not be able to compensate for the loss of the student grant.
Student U requests advice from the social department of the Austrian Student Union (ÖH). He would like to know if there is still any possibility to receive the study grant in his situation.
During the counseling sessions, U learns that the income of one or both parents from the current calendar year can be used, even if it has not yet been completed. It is assumed that the parent’s income in this calendar year is already at least 6 months lower by at least 10% than in the calendar year before the application. When applying for student aid, it is possible to explicitly request that the income of the current calendar year be estimated for the calculation of income. In this case, the income of the current calendar year of the parent concerned is estimated by the authority on the basis of the income documents already available and the income of the previous year is disregarded.
This is much more favorable for U. Therefore, within open application period (in winter semester: September 20 to December 15), U applies again for student aid and this time requests to use the paternal income from the current calendar year 2020.
U is successful with this. A few days later, he receives a positive decision from the authority. The study grant is awarded to him.
Won by the ÖH: With the help of the ÖH, the student now continues to receive the study grant for his master’s degree – despite the original rejection.
Further successes from consulting at www.oeh.ac.at/geschafft
