Studying and membership in an unemployment fund
You can be a member of an unemployment fund when you are a student, and in most cases it is also worth it. When you are unemployed, there are many different ways of studying, and you can use the earnings-related allowance to support your studies. But you must be a member of an unemployment fund. Normally, a full-time student cannot receive earnings-related allowance, but you should still keep your membership in an unemployment fund. In this way, you can keep the employment condition that you have already collected and make use of the earnings-related security if you cannot find work immediately after your studies.
You should also keep your YTK membership during your studies
As a member of the YTK, you have the opportunity to support your studies with earnings-related daily allowance. Read more about these options here. Studying can also stop us from paying you an earnings-related daily allowance.
Even if you were not entitled to an earnings-related daily allowance because you are a student, you should still keep your membership in the unemployment fund. This allows you to maintain the working condition you have already collected and apply for an earnings-related daily allowance after the studies have ended if you cannot immediately find a suitable job. In such a case, the right to receive an earnings-related daily allowance is based on the working condition collected before the studies. You can apply for a working condition for a period of up to seven years preceding studies.
When you keep your membership in the unemployment fund, you can also collect a new working condition by working during your studies. For example, many students work during holidays while they are studying. They can use this work for earnings-related unemployment security if they are members of YTK.
Some things are impossible, though
You can only join the unemployment fund while you are working. This means that students cannot join it during their studies. This is not a major problem, however, as studies do not accumulate the working condition, so you will not benefit from new membership in the unemployment fund. However, if you work while studying, you should join on your first working day. In addition, once you have joined, you can keep you membership during your studies.
There are no exemptions from YTK’s membership fee. Membership fees are used jointly and severally to finance benefits paid by the fund. Because of this, students must also pay the membership fee. If your situation means that you have trouble paying the membership fee, you can ask for more time to pay, or ask to pay in instalments. We are flexible when it comes to arrangements like this.