Are your commuting costs reimbursed as a student worker in 2026?
Train, bus, bike or car: for most of your commute, your employer's contribution is set out in law, even for a three-week student job.
You have landed a student job. You know your hourly wage, you know your hours, and then it turns out every shift costs you forty-five minutes of travel, with two transport tickets and a bike at the station. At the end of the month you do the maths, and your season ticket appears nowhere on your payslip. Should it have been there?
In short
- Public transport: the contribution is compulsory. For the train regardless of distance, and since CLA no. 19/11 the old minimum threshold of 5 kilometres for bus, tram and metro has been scrapped as well.
- Bike: a bicycle allowance has been compulsory since May 2023. Where no sectoral or company agreement applies, CLA no. 164 provides €0.30 per kilometre since 1 January 2026, up to a maximum of 40 kilometres a day.
- Car or moped: no general obligation, but most sectors do provide something. Check your joint committee.
- Through a temp agency: you follow the scheme of the client where you work, not that of the agency.
€0.30
per kilometre of bicycle allowance where CLA no. 164 applies, since 1 January 2026
40 kilometres
maximum per day for which that bicycle allowance is paid
€0.37
per kilometre exempt from tax, with a ceiling of €3,700 for income year 2026
You probably know the scenario
Of your gross pay, what you expected did indeed remain, but of your season ticket there is no trace on the payslip. And then the question comes: should it have been there?
In most cases, yes. Your travel costs are not a favour you have to beg for, they are largely regulated by law. Only, the amount depends on how you travel, and few students know that. This article goes through the four options with you.
Does this apply to a student worker too?
Yes. The rules on commuting make no distinction between a permanent contract and a student employment contract. In its communication of 3 February 2026, Securex explicitly points out that temporary workers are also entitled to a contribution towards their commute, citing extras, casual workers, flexi-job workers and day contracts.
Your status as a student worker therefore changes nothing about your right. What it does change is the amount in the case of short employment: the contribution for public transport is calculated on your actual travel, and for individual days that is not a monthly season ticket but the number of journeys.
One thing matters here more than the amount itself. Your employer can only calculate the contribution correctly if he knows how you travel and over what distance. Those two pieces of information come from you.
What do you get back if you come by train?
For the train, the employer's contribution is compulsory, regardless of the distance travelled. That is what the FPS Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue states. The amounts are fixed flat rates, set according to the distance travelled and the type of season ticket, and they appear in a table annexed to CLA no. 19/9 of the National Labour Council.
That table moves along. CLA no. 19/11 of 8 April 2024 introduced a system in which the flat-rate contribution rises automatically as soon as SNCB raises its fares. On 1 February 2026 that happened: the price of train season tickets rose by 2.6 percent, and the employer's contribution rose by an average of 1.91 percent, according to Securex.
There is also the third-party payer scheme. If your employer concludes it with SNCB, he contributes at least 71.8 percent of the price of your season ticket and pays that amount directly to SNCB. If that contribution is raised to 80 percent, your second-class season ticket for commuting is entirely free: the remaining 20 percent is paid directly to SNCB by the government. In that case you pay nothing up front and simply collect your season ticket.
Is it worth asking about? For anyone who takes the train from Ghent to Antwerp twice a week, the answer speaks for itself.
And if you come by bus, tram or metro?
Here too the contribution is compulsory. The legislator makes one distinction here, and it is that distinction which determines your amount.
If you pay a price proportional to the distance, you receive the same contribution as for the train, capped at 75 percent of the actual price of the transport. If you pay a fixed price, regardless of how far you travel, the contribution amounts to 71.8 percent of the actual transport price, capped at the train contribution for a distance of up to 7 kilometres.
One point has changed in your favour in recent years. Article 3 of CLA no. 19/11 removed the minimum distance of 5 kilometres that previously appeared in CLA no. 19/9. If you live three kilometres from your work and take the bus, you no longer fall outside the scheme.
The fares of De Lijn, STIB and TEC were also adjusted in February 2026, which moved these contributions in the same direction.
How much is the bicycle allowance in 2026?
A bicycle allowance for commuting has been compulsory since May 2023. All employees in the private sector are entitled to it, either through a sectoral CLA or, failing that, through CLA no. 164 of the National Labour Council.
CLA no. 164 is supplementary. It therefore only steps in where the sector or the company has not arranged anything itself. Its amount was indexed on 1 January 2026 to €0.30 per kilometre, with a maximum of 40 kilometres a day. On 1 January 2027 that amount will be adjusted again.
If your sector has a scheme of its own, that one takes precedence, even if the amount is lower. Take joint committee 200, the largest committee for white-collar employees. The bicycle allowance there is €0.27 per kilometre, for a maximum of 40 kilometres there and back, and only if you use the bike regularly. From 1 October 2026 that amount rises to €0.32 per kilometre, with a ceiling of €12.80 a day. If your student job falls under JC 200, check your October payslip.
On top of these amounts, the tax authorities and the NSSO set a limit. Since 1 January 2026, a bicycle allowance is exempt up to €0.37 per kilometre, with no maximum distance per day, and a ceiling of €3,700 for income year 2026. As long as you stay below that, the amount is net for you.
Do you get anything back for the car or the moped?
Here we have to be honest: there is no general obligation. The FPS Employment is clear on this point. A contribution for private transport can, however, be arranged at sector level or at company level, and that is the case in the majority of sectors, often expressed as a percentage of the train fares. These contributions therefore rose in February 2026 as well.
What does that mean for you? That you cannot deduce it from a general rule, but have to check it with your own joint committee. Simply ask the person who draws up your contract. It is not an awkward question, it is a normal one.
Mind the difference with business travel. If you drive during your working hours in your own car for your employer, so not from home to work, this is an expense proper to the employer and different rules apply, and those ones are compulsory.
And if you work through a temp agency?
This is the situation of many student workers, and it works slightly differently.
As an agency worker, you follow the scheme drawn up at sector level or at company level for the permanent employees at the user company, so at the business where you actually work. The sectoral CLAs or the company CLA of that client also apply to you. That is what Securex states, updated on 28 January 2026.
If nothing has been arranged at that client for public transport, the rules of the national CLAs take over again. And for private transport, the temp sector has concluded its own CLA, which likewise only comes into play when no sectoral or company CLA applies at the user company.
In practice it comes down to this: your travel allowance depends on where you work, not on the temp agency. If you work in a warehouse this month and in a shop next month, the amount may differ. That is not a mistake on your payslip, that is the system. Read more about temporary work.
What do you have to do yourself?
Three things, and together they will take you ten minutes.
- Report your means of transport and your distance. At your registration or at the start of your contract: which means of transport you use and how many kilometres you travel between your home and your place of work. Without those two pieces of information, nobody can calculate the correct contribution. Securex explicitly advises employers to keep this information up to date, and the simplest way to do that is you.
- Keep your transport tickets and your season ticket. In the event of reimbursement afterwards, that is your proof.
- Check your payslip, especially the first one after a change. If you move into a student room, change workplace or switch from the bus to the bike, your distance changes, and possibly your scheme too. Report it the way you report a change of address.
In Belgium, your travel costs are largely regulated by law, and that applies to a three-week student job as well. For the train, the bus, the tram and the metro, the contribution is compulsory. For the bike it has been too since May 2023, at €0.30 per kilometre where CLA no. 164 applies. For the car, everything depends on your sector.
The biggest gain lies not in knowing all the tables, but in passing on two pieces of information correctly: how you come, and over what distance. The rest follows from that.
We are Recruit a Student!
At Recruit a Student we reimburse your commute according to the social season ticket scheme. We calculate the distance between your home and your place of work, and those kilometres are paid out. So tell us at registration where you live and where you will be working, then it is right from your first payslip onwards.
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At Recruit a Student you know in advance where you stand, on this point too. We arrange your contract, your Dimona declaration and your pay, and we apply the travel scheme that applies at the client where you go to work. Questions about your payslip reach a familiar face, not a call centre.
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FAQ
As a student worker, am I entitled to reimbursement of my train season ticket?
Yes. The employer's contribution to the price of the train ticket is compulsory, regardless of distance, and your status as a student worker changes nothing about that. The amount is a flat rate from the table annexed to CLA no. 19/9, which depends on the distance and the type of season ticket.
Does a minimum distance of 5 kilometres still apply?
No. Article 3 of CLA no. 19/11 removed that condition for public transport other than the train. For the train it did not apply in any case.
How much is the bicycle allowance in 2026?
Where CLA no. 164 applies, so where the sector or the company has not arranged anything itself, it is €0.30 per kilometre since 1 January 2026, with a maximum of 40 kilometres a day. If your sector has a scheme of its own, that one applies, even when the amount is lower.
Up to what amount is my bicycle allowance tax-free?
Since 1 January 2026, a bicycle allowance is exempt up to €0.37 per kilometre, with no maximum distance per day. On an annual basis a ceiling of €3,700 applies for income year 2026.
Do I get anything back if I drive to my student job?
There is no general obligation for private transport. Many sectors do provide one, often as a percentage of the train fares. Ask which joint committee applies to your job.
I work through a temp agency. Who determines my travel allowance?
The scheme that applies at the client where you work. The sectoral CLA or the company CLA of that user company also applies to you as an agency worker. If you change assignment, your allowance may therefore change.
Why is there nothing about travel on my payslip?
Usually because your means of transport or your distance has not been reported, or has been reported incorrectly. Pass those two pieces of information to whoever manages your contract and ask for a review of the months concerned.
Does anything change on 1 October 2026?
Yes, for anyone who falls under joint committee 200. The bicycle allowance there rises from €0.27 to €0.32 per kilometre, with a ceiling of €12.80 a day.