When Sara Riis Hasselskog was going to study in Malmö in the autumn semester 2023, she applied for CSN’s transition study support.
She worked in the advertising industry but wanted to train in AI, which she believes will affect her and other industries in the future.
It was The newspaper NäringslivetTN, who first brought her CSN case to attention.
“Depletes one’s finances”
During the past year, she has had to empty the savings account, shop at extra prices and borrow for certain special things.
– When you are in the middle of working life and have to go back to living on student loans even though you have a car and children, it impoverishes your finances, she says to News24.
Almost a year later…
Only almost a year later, in May 2024, was she told that she would not be granted the compensation.
– I have always been good with money. So this year I have baked bread instead of buying ready-made, went for an extra long walk to buy the cheese at an extra price in some store further away and so on. It has been turning over every penny, says Sara Riis Hasselskog.
“In the latest team”
– It was now in May that I received the message that I could not receive adjustment support. I first thought it was about the spring semester, but then I saw that the rejection applied to the fall semester 2023, she tells Nyheter24.
The transition support is a CSN grant that is meant to help Swedes continue their studies from one industry to another.
But the system has been criticized for being too slow and difficult to interpret.
“It costs money with children, housing, car”
– I was not dependent on receiving the support. But it costs money with children, housing, car and such. Since I did not receive any notification, I had to take out a student loan instead. You cannot live on air alone. I luckily had a few weeks left of the student loan, but not everyone can take it and then there will be no student at all for them, says Sara Riis Hasselskog.
Needed to borrow money instead
Instead, Sara Riis Hasselskog had to take out a student loan to start her studies.
The problem is, in addition to the fact that the loan is a loan and not a grant, that the compensation level in the transition support is much higher.
– When you study in the middle of life, you have to put your life on hold after saving a few kroner. You shop second hand, refrain from many purchases and so on.
The purpose of the grant
The idea behind the level of the CSN loan is that it is adapted to a student who is usually younger, does not have children or large expenses. The transition support therefore compensates people who are often in the middle of life and have higher living expenses associated with, for example, mortgages and the life of small children.
CSN writes that on its website.
“It’s been hard”
But it does not work so well in Sara Riis Hasselskog’s case.
– It is clear that it has been hard. But I had savings from before and it was grateful, but the best thing would have been to get that grant, she says.
She is not disappointed with CSN, which is certainly doing its best, she believes.
Should be able to go faster
But the big concern for her was that she could have received the notification immediately via some automated system, instead of a physical person having to look at her application. That’s why it took such a long time.
“Could have needed an AI”
The reason she was rejected was that she applied for a CSN loan, she says. You cannot receive both adjustment study support and a student loan at the same time.
Precisely for this reason, however, her application should have been rejected automatically as soon as CSN received both an application for the transition study support and the loan. It should not have taken several months to make such a statement, she thinks.
– They would need an AI. Then I would have received my message in half a minute instead, and been able to plan my life accordingly.
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