Today, the Ministry of Social Affairs announces that they want to change the rules for students' sickness benefit qualifying income. Today's system presupposes that students who do not take out student loans and grants never get sick. According to the new proposal, students who have previously worked will be able to receive sickness and parental benefits even if they do not take out full study grants. SFS believes that the proposal is very good.
Most students who are on sick leave receive a compensation corresponding to the study grant. However, students who have previously worked have SGI protection. This means that professionals who start studying may retain their sickness benefit qualifying income (SGI), which is the basis for both sickness benefits and parental benefits. Remuneration is often higher than for other students, which makes SGI protection an important security for professionals who are considering starting their studies. But this only applies if they withdraw full study funds, ie both grants and loans.
Students who do not take out full study grants do best not to get sick or have children. They do not receive SGI protection and they cannot receive sickness benefit based on a study grant they do not have. They receive no compensation at all.
The reasons for not taking study grants vary. Some have already taken out study grants for five years before they have finished studying. Others may have missed courses and must catch up to be eligible for study grants again. Still others simply prefer to go down to part time and continue working instead of taking out a loan. In total, there are an estimated 30 students who do not take full study funding. Many of them have worked before.
The Ministry of Social Affairs announced today that they want to introduce SGI protection also for students who do not withdraw study grants. This is good news for about 7000 of the students who are basically without health insurance today.
Together with those improvements in health insurance announced in July shows an important development. We hope that it will be supplemented with a proposal on how students without either SGI or study grants should be able to receive sickness compensation.