This is due to the fact that students from high income groups can finance their own studies, while the performance standard of those from low-income groups usually does not enable them to qualify for this benefit. Thus, given their basically meritocratic nature, and despite the political will to channel them towards the most vulnerable social groups, transfers of this type are regressive because they are mainly granted to middle-income groups (see figure II. Furthermore, they have little weight in households’ per capita income, since they average only about 7% of that income for the recipient households.