The Danish government’s 2027 finance bill proposal will cut SU student grants for far more home-living students than first announced, including those whose parents earn around 420,000 kroner a year before tax.
The proposal was presented officially on Friday morning at 8 a.m., but DR had already obtained the draft on Thursday evening. The broadcaster reported that the government will not stop at removing SU from students whose parents earn more than 710,000 kroner annually. The draft carries the title “Et stærkere forsvar af Danmark, et styrket Danmark at forsvare”.
Under the version DR has seen, home-living students whose parents have a combined income between roughly 420,000 and 710,000 kroner would face a phased reduction. Those students would not lose the full grant, but part of it. Students with parental income above 710,000 kroner would lose the grant entirely.
How the plan grew after the first announcement
Four government ministers presented the original version to Berlingske last week, with a single threshold of 710,000 kroner. According to that reporting, the measure would affect 81,000 home-living students. The phase-out band disclosed by DR adds students from households well below that level.
Anna Bjerre, finance spokesperson for Alternativet, told DR on Thursday evening that the change makes an already criticized proposal worse. Per her comments to the broadcaster, the extended cut reaches families earning less than the unemployment benefit level. She said SU belongs to students rather than to their parents, and that her party will work against the measure.
The Ministry of Finance had scheduled the official publication of the proposal for October 9, 2026. It is the first finance bill presented by Peter Hummelgaard of the Social Democrats as finance minister. The SU reduction sits alongside other financing measures in the draft, including an end to the registration tax exemption for electric cars priced above 366,000 kroner, higher employment requirements for graduate unemployment benefits, and a cap on the interest deduction.
What the SU changes mean for international students and families in Denmark
SU, short for Statens Uddannelsesstøtte, is the Danish state education grant paid monthly to students in qualifying programs. The rate depends on whether a student lives at home or away from home, and for home-living students on parental income. The student grants scheme is administered by Uddannelses- og Forskningsstyrelsen through minSU, which students access with MitID.
International residents are affected in two ways. Families on foreign passports whose children live at home and study in Denmark fall under the same parental income thresholds described by DR, with no separate rules announced for non-Danish households. For students from other EU and EEA countries, SU eligibility normally depends on working status or residence grounds rather than nationality, and the proposal as reported does not change those access rules. Anyone studying or planning to study in higher education in Denmark should note that the thresholds are proposals, not law.
What is not yet known is whether the measure survives parliamentary negotiation. A finance bill must be agreed with a majority in Folketinget before it takes effect, and Alternativet has stated its opposition. DR’s reporting also does not specify how steeply the grant would taper between 420,000 and 710,000 kroner, or from which date the reduction would apply. Earlier reporting on the finance bill’s SU cuts covered only the higher threshold.
