Working as a working student

As a student you have several opportunities to work. This includes work as a working student. But what should be considered when working as a student trainee? How many hours is allowed to work? Which privileges do you have? What does it mean to be “uninsured as a worker” in health insurance??

1. What is the working student privilege? What are the requirements?

Of the Student status despite being employed, it is only possible for students to be covered by social insurance and not as employees. As a result, fall for the job no levies for unemployment, long-term care and health insurance on. This makes the status of employers so attractive, as they also have to pay you less than employers.

To benefit from the Student Student Privilege, the following conditions must be met:

A maximum of 20 working hours per week during the lecture period Outside the lecture period, a maximum of 26 weeks more than 20 hours per week may be worked in. The study is in the foreground

Important: As a student, you are still insured and may need to pay contributions.

By the way: Who one Minijob (“450 € -Job”) makes or a short-term employment, in which plays the Werkstudentenprivileg not so important role – for Minijobber must always pay the employer lump sums to the Social Security, as an employee anyway you have no deductions from the gross wage. It does not matter for a mini-job or a short-term job, whether you are a student or not.

Back to the freedom of insurance through the student work status. As always, there are of course various special cases. We have listed them below – without guarantee of completeness!

• Higher changers: If you change from a UAS to a university and therefore are not enrolled for one month due to the different semester periods, the insurance freedom also applies in the transitional period.
• graduates: The freedom of insurance no longer applies after you have been officially informed by letter in writing about the overall result of the examination. In this case, the student regulation ends in concrete terms with the end of the month in which you received the letter. (This regulation is valid since 1.1.2017, so far the deposition of the last examination was decisive.) Whether you continue to be enrolled does not matter. Exception: Lawyers who remain enrolled after the first legal examination in order to (only this reason counts!) To try to improve (free kick), remain insured.
• Prospective students: The freedom of insurance does not apply if you take part in preparatory language courses or preparatory courses for the preparation for studies. The same applies to participation in other courses preceding the course (Propädeutika).
• In the holiday semester The Werkstudentenprivileg does not apply unless you complete a compulsory internship during the leave semester. This exception applies since 1.1.2017.
• PhD students do not benefit from the student work privilege.
• Master’s degree: You are as insured as undergraduate students.
  Attention: In the transitional period between bachelor and master studies, the work student privilege does not automatically continue to apply!
• Additional studies or supplementary studies: Here is the Werkstudentenprivileg not.
• Secondary and advanced studies: The Werkstudentenprivileg applies if the study also concludes with a university examination.
• Long-time students: You will no longer benefit from the freedom of insurance if you are in the 26th or a higher semester (unless you can prove that you are doing your studies seriously and as a main subject).
• Part-time study: When studying part-time, it depends on whether or not you spend most of your time and effort on studying. If you spend more than half the time of full-time study (and if your studies are formally designed to that extent!), You have the student privilege and apply for half the time you spend full-time or less to study the working student privilege not. This regulation applies since 1.1.2017.
  But beware: If the respective degree program is (also) a “part-time” course (that is, for example, most of the FOM degree programs), in our estimation, the student privilege does not apply even if you do not study individually at work!
• Dual study: The student work privilege does not apply. Compulsory insurance is governed by special rules, which in turn depend on the type of dual study. Look here.
• Distance learning: If you study part-time, the same applies to other part-time students (see above). With a full-time distance learning (at the FernUni Hagen), however, the working student privilege always applies. However, you have to prove that you are really studying full-time.

(Almost) does not matter the amount of your earnings. So you can also earn, for example, € 3,000 a month and remains a working student – if you keep to the otherwise stated conditions. But that social security may look more closely to see if everything is right, but with such high (permanent) income.

Even if the working student privilege does not apply to you, you as a worker are not insurable if your employment is small (mini-job up to € 450 or short-term employment).

If you are neither “ordinary students” nor slightly employed, you can read in section 6, which then applies to you in terms of health, care and unemployment insurance.

2. The 20-hour rule for jobs during the lecture period

You are to be considered a regular student rather than an employee if you do not work more than 20 hours a week during the lecture period. If you have a job in which you have to work more, you assume that your studies are behind your job and that you are more workers than students. However, this only applies to the lecture period. During the semester break, you can easily work more than 20 hours. However, if you do this more often, you must follow the 26-week rule.

Do you work (in the lecture period) predominantly outside the regular study period, ie to the Weekends, evenings or nights, may you exceptionally also work more than 20 hours. In this case, however, you must meet the following requirements:

• You have to spend most of your time and work in spite of your job.
• The job must also be limited in time, to a maximum of 26 weeks. (This requirement applies since 1.1.2017.)

Do you have several jobs, when asked if the 20-hour limit is exceeded, the working time in all jobs is added up. An open-ended 18-hour job that was previously covered by a student’s work privilege will therefore be subject to compulsory insurance when combined with a 5-hour open-ended job. The 5-hour job remains insurance-free if it is a marginal job.

Caution: If you are not entitled to the student work privilege because you work more than 20 hours in the lecture period, the insurance freedom may not be met. U. nor show that it is a short-term employment. More in this article.

If you are insured you can read in section 6, which then applies to you in terms of health, care and unemployment insurance.

3. 26-week rule for jobs with more than 20 hours per week

Not only in terms of weekly working hours, but also over a one-year period, student status must outweigh the status of employee. Anyone working more than 20 hours a year for more than 26 weeks (182 calendar days) a year will therefore be liable for insurance as an employee. Only occupations with more than 20 hours per week (with the exception of completed mandatory internships) are taken into account in the calculation.

The annual period is determined as follows: The expected end of the employment to be assessed is the last 12 months.

If the period of 26 weeks is exceeded with the employment to be assessed, the compulsory insurance begins at the beginning of the employment to be assessed or at the time when it is apparent that the period is exceeded.

If you are insured as an employee, you can read in section 6, which then applies to you in terms of health, care and unemployment insurance.

4. Insurance obligations as a working student

As already mentioned above, working students are entitled to insurance freedom in unemployment insurance and health and long-term care insurance. However, only in the capacity as an employee. Since you can not become unemployed as a student, only for the unemployment insurance really nothing has to be paid.

For the pension insurance, the expenses are shared with the employer. For the health and long-term care insurance, on the other hand, you have to take care of yourself – but as a student you have the privilege of a cheap student tariff (regardless of the amount of your income).

Pension insurance as a working student

Abbreviations:
AG = employer; AN = employee

Health insurance as a working student

Even if you as a student trainee on the job is not subject to health insurance: It remains the compulsory insurance in the property as a student.

Complete without costs For the health insurance you can only get along, if you can stay in the family insurance. Minimum requirement would be a correspondingly low income. Specifically, this means: regularly under 450 € / month with only mini-job; for other jobs, it can either be a lot more in the short term (up to two months) or at most € 435 / month (plus flat-rate advertising allowance). For details, please read our article Family insurance as a student.

In all other cases (and that will basically apply to all who regularly earn over 450 € / month and pursue a classic student work-study), the insurance remains at the favorable student rate in the statutory health insurance. Although he also has his limits (no more than 14 semesters for a study subject, age under 30 years) and exceptions – all the details you read in the article health insurance for students.

If your family insurance ends when you take a larger job, you have the alternative at this time to switch to private health insurance. However, this should be well considered, a return to the legal KV is then no longer possible during the study.

By the way: In fact, there is a narrow corridor between 450 € and 518 € (as of 2018, cap changes annually!), In which one can remain as a working student in the family insurance, since the gross income can be deducted from the initial cost of service charges. If you get the result 445 € or less, the family insurance is still possible. Most employers want to employ working students more extensively and even the health insurance companies like to forget the deduction of the cost of employment. However, the advertising allowance may not have been “used up” by previous employment in the same year.

5. Do I have to pay taxes as a working student??

As a normal student (childless, unmarried) with exactly one permanent student work job may be available in 2019 from € 1,052 monthly gross earnings with prints through tax (here: payroll tax).

Why it is exactly 1.052 Euro, when you have to pay taxes at all and even more you will learn in the article tax savings as a student.

6. Jobs without student status – eg. B. in the holiday semester

What some people are unaware of is that you have no student status in terms of social security during your semester, you are not a regular student. Unless you are doing a mandatory internship during the semester.

Abbreviations:
KV = health insurance; PV = long-term care insurance; RV = pension insurance; ALV = unemployment insurance; AG = employer; AN = employee

* The AN pays since 01.01.2019 only 0.25% in addition to long-term care insurance, if he is childless and over 23 years old. By contrast, half of the additional contribution to CT is now borne by the AG.

In particular, you study “not tidy” when you are on leave to study or work more than 20 hours a week during the lecture period. Who else belongs to the “ordinary students”, you can read in section 1.

This article is largely based on a work by Nicola Pridik back. He was from the Studis Online-Editorial staff updated and converted, part 5 (taxes) is from Oliver Iost been supplemented.

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