In September 2008, the Salzburg area District Authority, representing two minors, petitioned the Oberndorf District Court for increased child support. Following swift preliminary proceedings, by mid-February 2009 all the information required for a decision had been assembled. However, a court decision was not issued until nine months later. The Ministry of Justice attributed the delay to the fact that the judicial officer handling the case had been sick, and that judicial officers overall were having to handle an above-average workload. Nine months for a decision Principle of equal treatment ALLOWANCES FOR DISABLED STUDENTS Pursuant to the Student Support Act, students with disabilities are entitled to additional student allowances. The amounts are based on the type and extent of disability, the goal being to cushion the additional financial burden faced by disabled students during their period of study. The details are set forth in law, and stipulate that those with hearing disabilities receive larger student allowances than those with visual impairment or those in wheelchairs. Basically it should not be feasible to treat one group of disabled students differently from another group of disabled students. To be lawful, and in particular to be in conformity with the principle of equal treatment, the differing treatment would have to be justified by the facts. The AOB essentially cannot see any facts that might justify the different treatment as it is described above. Different treatment not justified The Ministry of Science and Research, within whose realm of responsibility this matter falls, has presented arguments seeking to justify this unequal treatment, by drawing attention to the findings of a working group in which representatives from organisations for the disabled participated. By contrast with those with visual impairment and those in wheelchairs, those with hearing disabilities do not receive any financial support pursuant to the Federal Care Allowance Act. At the same time, this group has to bear substantial additional costs during their period of study, e.g. the costs of sign language interpreters, and those costs are not reimbursed from other sources. The Ministry refers to working group findings 29