Financial well-being

Studying is not cheap. Aside from tuition fees, you have to cover living expenses and the costs of various insurance policies, for example. If you plan to live in digs, your rent will be another major expense. The National Institute for Family Finance Information (NIBUD) has listed details regarding the average cost of studying.

If you are under the age of 18 years, your parents are still responsible for providing many things that relate to you. Occasionally, a vendor will have to check whether you have your parents’ consent to purchase a particular item. Now that you are 18 years old, you have to watch out for yourself. You can sign up for your own subscriptions, take out a loan, or buy items on an instalment basis.

What do you have to take into account when you turn 18? Follow the link below to access a list of 10 things that you need to do or should at least consider carefully.

How can you effectively balance your income and expenses? The first step towards a well- managed budget involves the effective and structured maintenance of your financial administration. The NIBUD can help you to achieve this.

Are you in the red every month? Or perhaps you’d like to put more money into your savings? If so, it can be very useful to make a list of your monthly sources of income and items of expenditure. The NIBUD can assist you in drawing up an effective budget.

You will find all the information you need to know about student finance from DUO on the DUO website.

If you fulfill their criteria, you can apply to DUO for student financing to help you pay for your degree programme and living expenses. You can do this via the ‘My DUO’ online service.

But how do you work out whether or not you need extra money and, if you do, how much should you borrow? The NIBUD can help you to answer this question in a way that enables you to handle your loan options in a responsible manner.

Sometimes you may fall behind with your studies due to circumstances beyond your control, such as medical or psychological conditions (including a functional impairment). In first instance, you can apply for help from the UG's Student Support Fund. However, in case you receive Dutch student finance from DUO, DUO also offers a number of facilities for students facing such circumstances of force majeure, which you can apply for if you meet a number of conditions. You will always need support from a student counsellor for such DUO facilities.

The student counsellors of the Student Services Centre (SSC) are not only your point of contact for questions about student finance from DUO, they also advise you on available DUO facilities and assess whether you meet the applicable conditions. The website below provides more information on the most common facilities.

If you borrow money from DUO during the course of your studies, you will have to repay it after you graduate. You may have a very casual attitude towards this repayment, taking the view that paying off your student debt is an issue for the distant future. On the other hand, it may be a niggling thought that keeps you awake at night.

Whatever the case, we recommend that you waste no time in familiarising yourself with the rules for paying off this debt. A thorough understanding can give you peace of mind. Alternatively, it might give you new insights that you can then use to tweak your financial affairs in a timely manner.

Do you expect to have some residual student debt after you graduate? If so, then you may want to know what impact your student debt will have on your future.

For instance, one key question is how does student debt affect your ability to take out a mortgage to buy a house? There are all sorts of rumours about this, but what is the truth of the matter? This is clearly explained in the website below.

Radboud University has published a number of interesting videos on YouTube as part of their series ‘Financially healthy student’, in collaboration with DUO, Rabobank, and Nibud. Some of the videos are about student finance matters.

The supplementary grant provided by DUO is intended to support students whose parents have relatively low incomes. These grants are performance-related, which means that an initial loan that you take, which does not exceed €400 per month, will be converted into a gift if you successfully complete your degree programme within a period of ten years. You must apply for a supplementary grant from DUO yourself.

A study conducted by the CPB (Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) has shown that no less than one quarter of first-year students in higher education who are entitled to a supplementary grant do not make use of it. As a result, these students miss out on an extra €175 per month, on average!

Even if you do not think you are entitled to these funds, you can easily check your eligibility via the link below. After all, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It is possible for senior students who were not previously entitled to a supplementary grant to become eligible later on in their degree programmes. This change could be due to changes in the student’s family situation or to significant changes in a parent’s income.

It may be that you are unaware of certain details concerning one or both parents or that your parent or parents do not wish to cooperate, perhaps due to a conflict. This situation can affect your entitlement to a supplementary grant. In such cases, it may sometimes be possible to discount a parent’s income, which may strengthen your rights to a supplementary grant. In some situations of this kind, you will need the support of a student counsellor. It is also sometimes possible to adjust the reference year, with possible positive consequences for your right to a supplementary grant.

Many students take on part-time jobs to finance their studies (fully or in part), but for those with medical disabilities, it is sometimes difficult to earn extra money. For instance, you could have chronic illness or a functional impairment that would prevent you from earning extra money on a regular basis.

In situations like this, you might be entitled to an individual study allowance from your local authority, amounting to several hundred euros per month. That money would be disbursed as a gift, not a loan!

For details of the specific conditions governing this allowance and the application procedure involved, please contact the local authority where you are officially registered as a resident. For example, follow the link below for information on the Municipality of Groningen.

Many students with part-time jobs pay too much tax. Excess payment could involve paying too much income tax on the earnings from your part-time job or your placement allowance because tax credits have not been adequately accounted for. There are also various deductions that you can apply.

You can reclaim this tax from the Belastingdienst (Tax and Customs Administration). You could try filing a tax return, to see if you can get a refund. You can file an online tax return on the website of the Tax and Customs Administration. They also have an app that you can use for this purpose. The Tax and Customs Administration will already have filled in part of the information needed. You only need to check that the data that has been automatically entered is correct and then enter the remaining data. You will then immediately see whether or not you are entitled to a refund.

In addition, something to be aware of: Are you now filing a tax return for the first time but believe that you might have been entitled to refunds had you done so in previous years? You can file returns for any one of the past five years!

Do you have to deal with annual tax assessments for water boards and municipal taxes? If so, you may be able to avail of a waiver scheme for this substantial item of expenditure.

For details on the specific conditions governing this allowance, and of the application procedure involved, please check the official website of the local authority where you are registered as a resident. Follow the link below for information on the Municipality of Groningen, including a calculation tool to see whether any conditions apply in your case.

Are you living in the municipality of Groningen and do you, as a student, have to deal with increased energy costs and can no longer pay this? Then it is possible for a student living away from home to apply to the municipality of Groningen for special welfare for energy costs. To make it easier to apply, as of November 1 there is no means test. This means that you do not have to declare your savings and other possessions when applying. You also do not have to have your own energy contract in your name. Often, for you as a student, the cost of gas and electricity are included in the total amount of the room rent.

Healthcare allowance is a government-funded scheme to help people pay for their health care costs. Housing benefit is another government-funded scheme to help cover rental expenses. Many students meet the eligibility conditions for a healthcare allowance and/or housing benefit. These benefits represent a significant source of income.

In short, if you are not yet making use of these allowances, use the link below to check whether you qualify to receive them.

Over the course of your studies, you may experience a study delay due to extraordinary circumstances, such as illness, psychological circumstances, family circumstances, a functional impairment, or pregnancy. A study delay due to force majeure will adversely impact on your financial situation. In cases like this, the University’s Student Support Fund can offer a solution.

If you meet the Student Support Fund’s conditions, you can receive financial reimbursement of approximately €300 per 5 ECTS credit points (per month) of delay incurred. Students can receive supplementary grants in addition to any supplementary grant they have received from DUO to which they may be entitled.

One of the key eligibility criteria for accessing this fund is that you must always notify your study advisor about your force majeure situation and study delay as soon as possible. Various other conditions and issues also have to be taken into account. You can access details about them by following the link below.

Should you encounter financial problems over the course of your studies due to expenses that you cannot afford to pay, even though you are properly insured and have taken all appropriate precautions, you can apply to the University of Groningen’s Emergency Fund. In some cases, the Emergency Fund can offer financial support in the form of a gift, a loan, or a combination of the two.

A number of other conditions and issues also have to be taken into account. You can find details of these conditions by following the link below.

If your budget for a degree programme or a placement abroad does not cover the costs involved, you can -in most situations- apply for an Erasmus grant. Alternatively, you can apply to the Marco Polo Fund and/or the Groningen University Fund (GUF). If you are unsuccessful, a private fund may be the solution, as there are a number of private funds that offer financial support to those in extremely difficult circumstances.

In the case of some private funds, you will need a recommendation from a student counsellor at the University of Groningen. You can find details of these funds by following the link below.

As a student, you can receive additional study financing under certain conditions if you care for a child without a partner, in addition to your studies: the single parent allowance.

In the Netherlands, everyone aged 18 years and above is obliged to take out health insurance. You have a choice between many different health insurers, and each insurance policy offers a range of options. For instance, international students can make use of the various options that are mentioned on this website. However, you are entirely at liberty to choose another insurer if you so wish.

What factors should you be aware of, and how can you work out which insurance policy is best suited to your needs? For a clear and comprehensive explanation, just follow the link below.

Small accidents can have big consequences. For example, you can accidentally damage someone else’s property, perhaps by spilling your coffee over their laptop. The consequences of that act are relatively minor, whereas some events, such as traffic accidents in which you accidentally cause damage or injury are much more serious. The financial impact of such an event can be enormous. You may be held liable for that damage, or the resulting injuries, and you may have to pay the associated costs for the rest of your life.

Fortunately, you can avoid such risks by taking out liability insurance. Insurance policies of this kind have relatively low premiums, especially when you consider the range of potential risks that they cover. Accordingly, it is highly recommended that students take out liability insurance. Many students are covered by their parents’ insurance policies, but this is not always the case. Follow the link below for information about the factors you need to be aware of and how to determine whether or not you are covered by your parents’ insurance policies.

If you are planning to rent or buy a place to live for yourself, it is important to take out insurance on home contents. This is because student houses and flats have a reputation for being frequently targeted by burglars. Follow the link below for more information about this type of insurance.

You can find many tips about money matters (for students as well) on the Internet. We have listed four of them here:

• Groningen Student City - Money matters
• Moneyfit.nl - Young People and Money
• Leukegeit.nl - Blog listing 19 tips on how students can save money
• Wijzer in geldzaken - Information page covering a wide range of financial topics and also contains specific information for students

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NewHealth is an online platform that the University of Groningen uses to provide you with an online and anonymous approach to finding help for dealing with mental problems. NewHealth offers modules with a range of different themes, including ‘Financial worries’.

The Groningse Kredietbank (GKB) offers a free course titled ‘Good with financial matters’. This course teaches you better ways of getting by on your budget. What exactly are your sources of income, and what expenses do you have? What might cause you to end up in the red? Also, are you entitled to any extra sources of income? These and other issues will all be tackled in the course.

Have you lost track of your money matters, or are you in debt? The Municipality of Groningen’s Eurocoach can help you!

The Eurocoach’s services are available to young people aged 18 to 24 years. They include providing advice and playing a mediating role if you are in debt. We can also help you to make wise choices in the future. That way, your money matters will always be in order.

Each district in the Municipality of Groningen has its own ‘Wij Team’. Members of these teams can help you with all kinds of practical issues, including money matters.

Are you having trouble making ends meet? Have you lost track of your financial administration? Are you in debt, or are you finding it difficult to pay your bills on time? If so, then perhaps WIJ Groningen can help. This assistance might apply in situations such as:

• I can no longer pay my bills.
• I have no money left for rent or to buy food.
• I hardly dare to open my mail anymore.
• I’m getting letters from debt collection agencies, and I don't know what to do.
• I have lost track of things.
• I have received a letter from the municipality, insurance company, energy company, or tax authorities that I do not understand.
• I find it difficult to fill in official forms/papers.

What can you do if you have not yet completed your programme, while your right to study finance from DUO (including the loan phase) has ended? You will then no longer have any income from study finance.

If you have no savings, no job or do not generate sufficient income, you cannot borrow from anyone, you are not eligible for the DUO Lifelong Learning Credit or another financial arrangement, you can apply for social assistance benefit from the municipality where you are registered.

If you apply for social assistance benefit, you will have an obligation to apply for a job. This means that the municipality will give priority to finding a job over your studies. The municipality will therefore usually not grant you any benefit if you remain registered as a student. A local authority can and sometimes does make an exception to this. The rule is that you must be in the final phase of your studies and there must be a clear prospect of graduating. In this case, the municipality may decide that it is financially more advantageous to support you with benefits without the obligation to apply for a job, so that you can graduate as quickly as possible. Each municipality may differ as to whether and when an exception is made. Note that the municipality is absolutely not obliged to make an exception for you: you are not entitled to it. You will therefore have to come up with a clear plan showing that you will graduate soon, in order to convince the municipality to make an exception for you.

If you apply for social assistance benefits, you must also register as a job seeker.

It is therefore advisable to first discuss your situation with someone from the WIJ team (within the municipality of Groningen) or an employee of the social services in the municipality where you live.

For more information on this topic in the Municipality of Groningen, click on the link below.

Student counsellors work at the University of Groningen’s Student Service Centre. In most cases, they are the point of contact for those wishing to request educational and exam facilities. The student counsellors can also inform you about the financial provisions that are available in the event of a study delay due to extraordinary circumstances, on matters relating to student finance, or about legislation and regulations.

Whether it concerns personal circumstances, a functional impairment, or any other study-related questions that you cannot (or do not wish to) resolve within the context of your degree programme, the student counsellor will gladly advise you and inform you about available regulations and resources (including those of a financial nature).

After being referred by a study advisor, students often make an appointment with a student counsellor. However, it is also possible to make such an appointment without a prior referral. If you are finding it difficult to discuss a particular tricky problem or topic, or to seek help, please remember that any conversations that you have with student counsellors are strictly confidential. The student counsellors will never share sensitive information about you with others, such as lecturers, fellow students or parents, without your explicit consent.