Member-only story
Paying Danes to Educate Themselves
My oldest kid turned eighteen this year and here in late summer 2020, he just started his third year of high school. In Denmark, kids start school a year later than most other places. The thing is, now that he is eighteen, the government just starts paying him to go to school. It’s like they place some sort of societal value on our citizens educating themselves or some crazy thing like that.
Every month, the government deposits 2700 Danish kroner in his bank account. That’s
€363 / $432 USD. All he had to do was apply for it online, which took a few minutes, and it happens. The payment is a supplement and it’s certainly not enough to live off of. It’s merely a helping hand while you’re educating yourself. You can get a job to further support yourself but there are rules about how much you can make — if you make too much one year, then you have to pay some of your educational support back. Fair enough.
The system is called SU — a Danish acronym for Statens Uddannelsesstøtte or State Educational Support. The amount you are eligible for varies. The 2700 kroner is the maximum for a kid his age. Some of my son’s friends receive around 900 kroner — €120 / $144 — per month. The factors include whether you live at home or on your own, whether your parents are still together, household income, etc. There are also extra amounts available if you…
