Groeipakket

Do you sometimes have to pay back the school allowance?

Yes, sometimes. A portion or all of it.
Generally that has to do with the school or boarding school registration.

What are the main reasons for you having to pay back (a portion of) the allowance?

Not registered until the end of the school year

Your child is no longer registered in a recognised Flemish school on the last day of school, generally the 30th of June.

It is no longer entitled to the school allowance.


Exceptions:

  • If your child has gained the final qualification of the education in the course of the year, the allowance can be retained. This occurs primarily in modular education, at the end of January.
  • Adult pupils in BuSo OV1 and OV2 who leave education with the correct certificate also retain their allowance.
  • In such cases, you should contact your payment fund.

Changing form of education

In the course of the year, your child changed their form of education, for example:

  • From full-time secondary to part-time secondary
  • From secondary to primary education

The amount of the allowance can change according to the course taken. A pupil who changes courses or changes to another level during the school year 2021-2022 or later, will receive the highest amount of the followed courses. Therefore, as of that school year, you no longer have to pay back part of the allowance if the new course also entitles you to the school allowance. For earlier school years, it is still possible that you have to pay some of it back.

Deregistered for more than 14 days in primary or secondary education

  • Your child deregistered from a school in the course of the school year.
  • It took longer than 14 calendar days before a registration was again made in a school.

Your child is no longer entitled to a school allowance.

Take care when deregistering just before the Christmas or Easter holiday: if you only register again after the school holidays, it can cost you the school allowance!

Insufficient school attendance

A child who does not attend school sufficiently or is too frequently (unduly) absent for two consecutive years loses the right to an allowance for the second school year.

We also count your child as present on days on which your child did not go to school because the school or class was closed due to COVID-19.

Preschoolers must attend school for a minimum number of half days.

  • The number increases with age.
  • An exception is possible for preschoolers of 2.5, 3 or 4 years who, for medical reasons, could not be at school on many days, if they have the necessary certificates.
    Contact your payment fund.

Pupils in primary school may be absent without justification for a maximum of 29 half days.

Insufficient attendance at boarding school

At the end of the school year your child had not attended boarding school on 149 or more days.
If your allowance was higher because your child was at boarding school, you must pay back that portion.