Officials trying to track down students who pretend to live independently but still live at home are to be allowed to search their parents’ homes for evidence of law-breaking, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.

The paper says officials will be able to turn up unannounced at parental homes and search rooms and cupboards for items which may belong to their offspring in their efforts to combat fraud. They will also be able to carry out local inquiries.
Students who are caught cheating will have to repay the money they were wrongly given as well as fines running into thousands of euros.
Students who live with their parents get a basic grant of €95 but students who live away get €266. Some 270,000 hbo college and university students claim a live-out grant.
Earlier research showed some 40,000 students are wrongly claiming the bigger amount, defrauding the taxpayer of between €30m and €80m a year.