Flexibility and agility are important qualities for an employee to keep pace with future changes and competition in the labor market. By developing throughout your life, you as an employee can keep your skills up to date so that you can keep up with the constantly changing labor market. With a lifelong learning credit you can dive straight into the textbooks.
What is a lifelonglearningcredit?
In 2017 the government introduced the lifelong learning credit . If you, as a working person, want to take a course and are no longer entitled to regular student finance, you can make use of the lifelong learning credit. Incidentally, this only applies to workers under the age of 56.
When are you entitled to a lifelong learning credit?
As an employee you can use the lifelong learning credit to a course to follow at the hbo, mbo or the university. For this programme you can borrow a certain amount to pay the tuition or course fees. The government provides this amount for the entire duration of the programme. After completion of the programme you must repay the borrowed amount with interest within 15 years.
The conditions for the lifelong learning credit
Of course not everyone can just borrow money. To be able to make use of the credit you must meet a number of conditions, namely:
· You are following a recognized full-time, part-time or dual program at the hbo (higher professional education) or the university. Or you are following a full-time vocational training pathway at the mbo (secondary vocational education).
· You are younger than 56 years.
· Your tuition or course fees are not (fully) paid by another person or other institution.
Tip: On the government's website you can use a handy tool,
the terms help
, to see if you are eligible.
How much can you borrow?
It is possible to borrow annually an amount equal to the tuition or course fees. The interest on this loan is lower than loans from, for example, a bank. For statutory tuition fees the maximum amount is €2.314,- for hbo and university, and €1.357 for mbo in the academic year 2023-2024. For institutional tuition fees or course fees you can borrow up to a maximum of €11.570 for hbo and university and €6.785 for mbo in the academic year 2023-2024.
Repayment of the loan
Of course you have to repay the loan. This depends on when you completed your studies or stopped. If you stop before 1 September, you start repaying on 1 January. And if you stop after 1 September, the repayment starts after four months.
You repay the loan over a maximum of 15 years or within 35 years, depending on the scheme you fall under. Each year you pay 12 percent of your income and that of your partner above a certain threshold. If after 15 years you have not repaid everything, the remaining amount will be written off.
Finally
Talent development is also a crucial component of the TotalTalentFlow, the new perspective of Circle8 on human resources. For more information go to the special webpage about this topic .
