{"id":4983,"date":"2026-10-21T09:04:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T07:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/?p=4983"},"modified":"2026-10-21T09:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T07:04:55","slug":"an-end-to-the-childcare-allowance-saga-retroactive-entitlement-for-phd-candidates-from-1-january-2025-in-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/an-end-to-the-childcare-allowance-saga-retroactive-entitlement-for-phd-candidates-from-1-january-2025-in-the-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"An end to the childcare allowance saga: Retroactive entitlement for PhD candidates from 1 January 2025 in the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In July 2025<\/a>, ITEM reported on the planned legislative change allowing PhD candidates without an employment contract to qualify for childcare allowance (kinderopvangtoeslag) from 1 January 2027. This change follows years of efforts by ITEM<\/a>, SOFI expertise and Nuffic to address the exclusion of non-employed PhD candidates, including those funded through external scholarships or their own means. Because they do not have an employment contract with the university where they are completing their PhD, their right to childcare allowance was uncertain. This often led to PhD candidates having to repay substantial allowances after being deemed ineligible. It also created an inequitable situation in which some PhD candidates qualified for childcare allowance while others did not, despite students being exempt from the employment requirement. ITEM and SOFI expertise submitted a response<\/a> to the proposed legislation. Together with Nuffic, ITEM also held initial discussions with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment to explore how the change could be anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 2 September 2026, an implementation decree<\/a> was adopted providing for the legislation to take effect retroactively from 1 January 2025. Eligible PhD candidates and trainee technological designers (technologisch ontwerpers in opleiding) who applied for childcare allowance in 2025 or 2026 may therefore qualify under the new rules, provided they meet the other applicable requirements and can demonstrate that they belong to the target group.  Supporting documents may include a doctoral training and supervision plan, a PhD agreement or proof of enrolment at a graduate school. The legislation also covers a broader group than PhD candidates and trainee technological designers alone. It also includes individuals undertaking doctoral programmes or conducting research at institutions and academic hospitals covered by the Dutch Higher Education and Research Act (WHW) (see also the news article of SOFI expertise<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ITEM welcomes this important milestone in addressing a long-standing issue and advancing more inclusive access to childcare allowance for researchers, regardless of their employment status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In July 2025, ITEM reported on the planned legislative change allowing PhD candidates without an employment contract to qualify for childcare allowance (kinderopvangtoeslag) from 1 January 2027. This change follows years of efforts by ITEM, SOFI expertise and Nuffic to address the exclusion of non-employed PhD candidates, including those funded through external scholarships or their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"thema":[69],"class_list":["post-4983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","thema-pension-fiscal-and-social-security"],"acf":[],"permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4984,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983\/revisions\/4984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4983"},{"taxonomy":"thema","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thema?post=4983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}