Universiteit Leiden

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Commuting allowance

As university employee you are entitled to an allowance for the cost of travelling to work if you live more than 10 kilometers from work. The amount of your travel allowance depends on the number of kilometers and the travel days you have filled in the timetable in the Service Portal. If you relocate, your commuting allowance is recalculated and adjusted if necessary.

From 2022, you will be paid a fixed allowance for days on which you travel to your workplace. This compensation will be based on the travel days you enter in the travel schedule on the Serviceplein. You can change your registration of working days and days in Leiden or The Hague, yourself via the Serviceplein.

If you live within a radius of 10 km from your work and you travel to your place of work on an incidental basis:

  • You are not entitled to a commuting allowance.
  • From 1 February 2021 you may claim the allowance for the travel days that you filled out in the timetable at the Service Portal via the Terms of Employment Individual Choices Model.

If you live more than 10 km from your work and you travel to your place of work on an incidental basis:

  • You are entitled to a commuting allowance. You can fill in your travel days in your timetable at the Service Portal. 
  • You may also request a supplementary allowance via the Terms of Employment Individual Choices Model.

What happens if you fall under the guarantee scheme or alternative written arrangements have been made with you?

  • If you fall under the guarantee scheme for commuting costs, or
  • If alternative written arrangements have been made with you,

There will be no change and you will continue to receive this allowance. You will see this on your salary slip. But you do need to fill in your travel days in the timetable in the Service Portal. You can request a supplementary allowance via the Terms of Employment Individual Choices Model. 

Are you a student assistant or a student on placement?
If you are a student assistant or a student on placement and you have a student OV-chipweekkaart, you are not eligible for an allowance.

There is no change in the amount of the commuting allowance. The rules are as follows:

  • There is no allowance for the first 10 km.
  • Above this, you receive € 0.07 per km up to a maximum of € 45 net per month.
  • You can claim travel costs up to three months after the date that the costs were incurred.
  • You arrange the commuting allowance by filling in your travel days in the Service Portal. 

The allowance will be paid separately from your salary, along with any other expense claims.  

For the days that you do not travel and therefore work from home, you are entitled to a home-working allowance. You can read whether you are entitled to this allowance and how to apply for it on the page Home-working allowance. You are not entitled to both a travel allowance and a home-working allowance for the same day. If you work both from home and on location on the same day, you will receive only one of the two allowances. 

You fill in your number of travel days in the timetable in the Service Portal. To fill in the timetable, follow the step-by-step plan of the PSSC, which you can find in the Helpdesk portal. 

If you have not worked for a month due to complete illness or work disability or complete special leave, the travel allowance will automatically stop at the end of this month. The internet allowance and home-working allowance will also be stopped. If you are no longer fully ill/fit to work, the allowances will restart automatically. 

When the new commuting allowance regulations were implemented in 2015, it was decided that employees should not receive a lower commuting allowance than they would have been entitled to in the 2005 regulations.

If you fall under the guarantee scheme for commuting costs, there will be no change and you will continue to receive this allowance. You will see this on your salary slip. The guarantee scheme only expires if:

  • you move from salary scale 5 or lower to salary scale 6 or higher; 
  • you have successive temporary contracts that together amount to longer than 3 years; 
  • your home address changes; 
  • your work address changes; 
  • your average number of commuting days per week changes.

Opting for the kilometre allowance via the Terms of Employment Individual Choices Model gives you a tax advantage.

How?
The system calculates the number of commuting kilometres based on an average of the travel days you entered in the Service Portal timetable, and multiplies this by € 0.23. The system reduces your gross salary by the amount calculated, so that you pay less income tax.

The system then adds the same amount to your net salary (the gross amount becomes a net amount). If you have already received a commuting allowance, this amount will be deducted from the tax allowance.

A change of your work location should be notified to PSSC via the Service Portal. For instruction please read this Knowledge Item.

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