Even more young people than expected are set to have their student grants cut, according to the finance bill proposal
The finance bill proposal will be officially presented on Friday morning, but several of the government's initiatives are already being revealed.
By
Mie Haugaard ( [email protected] ) 27 minutes ago
The number of home-living students who will be affected by the government's plan to cut student grants will be far greater than the government's initial announcement.
This is clear from the draft finance bill that the government will present on Friday morning at 8 a.m., which DR has already obtained.
The government is not merely proposing to abolish student grants for 81,000 home-living students whose parents earn more than 710,000 kroner a year before tax, as was previously presented by four prominent ministers in the government to Berlingske last week.
Now the four-party government also wants to cut student grants for home-living students whose parents earn as little as around 420,000 kroner annually.
For home-living students whose parents earn between approximately 420,000 kroner and 710,000 kroner, a phased reduction scheme will be introduced. That means the students will not lose the entire amount, but parts of it, according to the proposal titled 'A Stronger Defense of Denmark – A Strengthened Denmark to Defend', which DR has seen.
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'Regrettable announcement,' says The Alternative
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Finance spokesperson for The Alternative, Anna Bjerre, was already unimpressed by the government's proposal on student grants, and that has only worsened after she was made aware of the change.
"It's already quite extreme that the government is proposing to remove student grants for over 81,000 students. That they then further cut student grants for students with parents who earn even less – below the unemployment benefit rate – is quite extreme," she told DR on Thursday evening.
She emphasizes that student grants in Denmark exist for a reason:
"It's the students' money, not the parents' money. So wanting to cut so many students' grants while at the same time giving tax breaks to much richer people is a regrettable announcement, and we will do what we can to ensure it doesn't end up that way," says Anna Bjerre.
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Free dental care, millions for selected primary schools, and lower taxes
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In addition to cutting student grants for home-living students, details have already been trickling out about what the government's finance bill proposal for 2027 contains.
Among other things, the government will allocate 900 million kroner in an annual investment in primary schools.
200 million kroner will go to a special effort at 100 selected schools where students perform particularly poorly in Danish and math, Politiken reported on Tuesday following an interview with four ministers.
An additional 200 million kroner will be set aside for small primary schools in rural areas, while the remaining 500 million will go to a general boost for the country's primary schools.
Furthermore, the finance bill proposal indicates that money will go toward, among other things, free dental care, cheaper public transport, lower taxes, and agricultural transition.
On the very expensive end, the four-party government will allocate an additional 22 billion kroner to defense by 2027. By 2030, that amount is expected to rise to approximately 40 billion kroner.
Additionally, nearly 800 million kroner will be set aside from 2027 onward for measures that, according to the Ministry of Justice, strengthen the police and the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) in relation to the current threat picture, the Ministry of Justice announced as early as last week.
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Who will pay?
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The big question from the opposition – and perhaps also from Danes – remains: Who will pay for all this?
Electric car owners and home-living student grant recipients – who, as now appears, have become far more numerous in the proposal – are some of the contributors.
Because if the government has its way, it will become more expensive after New Year's to buy an electric car above a certain price level. The government will not extend the exemption for electric cars from the registration tax, four ministers told Berlingske last week.
Specifically, the proposal means that electric cars with a price tag of more than 366,000 kroner will become more expensive from 2027.
In addition to the proposal on registration tax, the government wants to raise the employment requirements for receiving graduate unemployment benefits and introduce a cap on interest deductions.
The finance bill will be officially presented tomorrow, for the first time with Peter Hummelgaard (Social Democrats) as finance minister.
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