Here’s how to navigate an additional administrative burden for those of you in Luxembourg with dependent children in higher (tertiary) education. The assistance available from the Luxembourg state interacts with the EU education allowance in unexpected ways, make sure to avoid surprises! Has your child just passed their secondary school exams and about to start higher education? This is what you need to know. While all dependents within the EU social-security system who are under 26 and in full-time education are entitled to the simple flat-rate education allowance [1] of currently 347.20 EUR per month[*], in Luxembourg that might come from another source.
Luxembourg state assistance is often not a supplement
If you work in Luxembourg, you are entitled to obtain the flat-rate education from the Commission as above, at the same time there is an additional education allowance from the Luxembourgish State (AideFi) which may or may not increase the sum you get at the end of the day, but which increasingly needs to be claimed, even for those who are not residents. (See: Staff Matters – Corporate – Cedies (AideFi) [2]; State financial aid for higher education (AideFi) – Guichet.lu – Luxembourg [3])
You can receive once per semester (status academic year 2024-25, yearly adaptation):
- Basic scholarship (1228 €)
- Upgrade for tuition fee (about half of the tuition you pay to the university)
- Mobility scholarship (1528 €)
- Social scholarship (function of family income)
- Family scholarship (for more than one child in the family)
How to claim and what to avoid
This eligibility means at the same time an obligation to apply: similar to what is happening with other allowances [4]. You have to first ask AideFi to give you as much money as possible. You have to submit an application each semester by 30 November or 30 April. The first time you submit a request for education allowance in Sysper, you must upload the certificate by AideFi, otherwise your request will be frozen and you will not receive a dime. In order not to delay the payment of the EU education allowance, you should start the AideFi process as early as possible. The AideFi application will be open as from the first working day of August.
How to calculate the amount to keep
As you receive one payment from AideFi each semester but a payment each month from the Commission, the semester amount will be spread over 6 months (yearly tuition upgrade will be spread over 12 months) and the full amount deducted from the amount you receive from the Commission up to 694.40/347.20 €. You can only keep what remains, should anything remain at all. As a consequence, you will have made all the effort with AideFi in order to decrease the payments due from the Commission. In other words: to indirectly subsidize the Commission via the Luxembourgish State and your own time and energy to deal with the paperwork.
Ongoing paperwork
Starting from the second semester of studies of your child, you will receive from the Commission the monthly amount you received during the previous semester, but you continue to be obliged to obtain a AideFi payment and submit the new AideFi certificate. This is the point when you probably lose control and may even give up to ever understand, if you receive the correct amount, since the Commission will each time recalculate the monthly amount and will send you debt letters and recuperate or reimburse amounts. It can even happen that several hundred euros (e.g. some 750 €) will be taken from your salary in one month just to be “reimbursed” some 2 months later.
Do you have an opinion on “subsidizing” the Commission or can you share a story about the education allowance for your child(ren), please do not hesitate to get in touch with us [5].
[*] However, if you receive the expatriation allowance of 16%, this amount can be doubled if the place of studies is located more than 50 km from your place of employment. You are entitled to the double flat-rate education allowance of currently 694.40 EUR per month. (See: Staff Matters – Corporate – University and/or Higher education [6]) The deadline is 15 November each year.