Studying and membership of the unemployment fund

Topics

• Income security

You should also maintain your membership of the YTK during studies. In this way, you will maintain your earnings-related unemployment security and secure your next steps.

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 prevent the payment of an earnings-related daily allowance.

Even if you were not entitled to an earnings-related daily allowance because you are a student, it is still useful to your maintain 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. It is possible to apply for a working condition for a period of up to seven years preceding studies.

When you retain your membership in the unemployment fund, you can also collect a new working condition by working during your studies. It is very common for students to work during holidays between studies, for example. These can be utilised in earnings-related unemployment security by being a member of the YTK.

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 no later than the first working day. In addition, once you have joined, studies are not an obstacle to maintaining your  membership.

There are no exemptions from YTK’s membership fee. Membership fees are used jointly and severally to finance benefits paid by the fund, so studying, for example, is not a basis for becoming exempted from the payment of the membership fee. If the membership fee is too high considering your life situation, you can request payment time from us or the possibility to pay the fee in instalments. Such arrangements can be made flexibly.