‘Students are throwing money out of the window’

‘Students are throwing money out of the window’

According to the National Institute for Budget Advice (Nibud), students miss out on a lot of money. Whether they are studying in secondary vocational education or higher education, they are wasting hundreds of euros a year.

Just look at the healthcare allowance alone: worth 1,000 euros a year and yet 34% of college students and 22% of students in higher education do not apply for it, according (in Dutch) to the Nibud.

Other low-hanging fruit also goes unnoticed. For example, two-thirds of secondary vocational education students with a part-time job do not file a tax return, making them ineligible for a refund. Of the students in higher education with a part-time job, approximately half do not file a tax return; of these, 7 percent did not know that they could receive a tax refund.

Supplementary grant
More serious is the fact that a part of the 18+ students in secondary vocational education and higher education are entitled to a supplementary grant, but do not apply for it out of ignorance. This saves them on average more than 180 euros per month. As many as 38 percent of secondary vocational education students without a supplementary grant have not checked whether they are eligible for one, and of these, 46 percent did not know that they could apply for one. In higher education, the figures are lower: a quarter do not apply for the grant, a quarter of them out of ignorance. (HOP, HC)