30.07.2020

Corona pandemic: bridging aid for students in financial emergency situations

The interim financial aid funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for students faced with pandemic-related financial hardship will be suspended from October 1, 2020. Applications can no longer be submitted on this platform. However, applications received by 11:59pm on 30 September 2020 will be processed by the responsible student union in any case!

The bridging aid for students will be extended! Students in pandemic-related emergencies can also apply for the grant in September.

Notice from Juny 30th:: We receive a lot of inquiries about the bridging aid, which we can't answer because we are permanently processing applications.

All applications will be processed in the order in which we receive the complete application. We are constantly processing applications. You will definitely receive feedback, and only in the application tool. This takes place as soon as possible after the application has been made, but due to a very high number of incomplete applications, it takes significantly more time than originally planned. This leads to requests for rectification, so that the applications have to be checked several times. Incomplete applications are unfortunately in the majority.

The four most common reasons for rejection:

  • The account balance is too high as of the key date. This is a mandatory reason for rejection, even if debits are still outstanding. The students actively decide for themselves when to complete the application in the current month and thereby hand it over to processing.
  • The emergency is not related to the Corona pandemic. The bridging aid can only be paid if the emergency situation can be proven to have arisen from the pandemic. This means that there was no emergency before the pandemic.
  • Missing evidence / obligation to cooperate. Its technically not possible to add documents by email. If documents are missing and there are no other reasons for rejecting the application, the applicant will receive a message within the application tool and can then upload missing documents in the application tool.
  • No feedback within the rectification period of usually 7 days. If the requested evidence is not answered within 7 days, the application will be closed automatically.

We are aware of the different problems the students are facing and are therefore working hard to process the applications. In addition to the bridging aid, the advisory centers of the universities and our social counseling are happy to help.

 

Notice from June 15th:

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is helping students who are demonstrably in a financial or economic emergency situation owing to the corona pandemic with allowances totalling 100 million euros. They are paid out via the student service organisations (Studierendenwerk).

You can apply for bridging aid online. However, for technical reasons, we will be able to process and assess the applications and initiate payments after the 25th of June 2020.

You can find the most important answers about the bridging aid here.

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Bridging Aid Hotline: 0800 26 23 003
Please use this BMBF phone number for questions. The Student Funding of the Studierendenwerk Bremen is not responsible for the bridging aid!
ueberbrueckungshilfe-studierende@bmbf.bund.de