Increased nursing care insurance contributions for students

Commenting on the increase in long-term care insurance contributions approved by the German Bundesrat on 16 June, Matthias Anbuhl, chairman of the board of Deutsches Studierendenwerk, said with regard to the approximately 2.9 million students:

"For students who are up to 29 years old and childless, the contribution to long-term care insurance will increase from €27.61 to €32.48 per month from 1 July 2023. For students 30 and older, the contribution will rise from €38.48 to €45.27 a month. That may not seem like a lot of money, but especially for the 37% of students who have to get by on less than €800 a month, the increase in long-term care insurance contributions can further strain an already precarious budget.

BAföG in particular increases the pressure to act, because it does not take this increase in contributions into account. The BAföG nursing care insurance contribution remains at €28 or €38 per month. Means: The BAföG promoted, childless students must carry the increased care insurance contributions for the time being from the - anyway too scarcely measured - BAföG basic need of €452 in the month.

Once again, this shows how urgently necessary it would be to automatically adjust the BAföG requirement rates to such increases in contributions. We as Deutsches Studierendenwerk have been demanding this for a long time, and it has also been an explicit mandate from the German Bundestag to the federal government for the past year. Under no circumstances should it sit back and do nothing about BAföG."