Pre-Placement Preparation

 
Accommodation
One of the most important things to find out before you go on placement is where you will be living, what accommodation is available and how much it will cost.

When you are investigating placements include this as one of the things to find out at your interview or visit.

If you are going abroad, ask your company or organisation whether or not they can arrange for some short term accommodation for your arrival until you have a chance to find your own place. If you will be in Britain, try and visit the area you will want to live in before you start to find your accommodation.

Council Tax
In the UK, under current legislation, houses occupied only by students are "exempt dwellings" and are therefore NOT liable for Council Tax.

You should contact the Council Tax Office when you move in to inform them of your student status. They will need to see written evidence of this - you can photocopy your Univesity Registration slips and send them with a letter attached explaining your circumstances and your name and address. If you need to get proof of your student status, contact the Registry Enquiry Office on towhom@bath.ac.uk  

If there are students and non-students living in your property it is more complicated. If there is only one non-student living in the property, a 25% sole occupier discount is applicable. This is becuase the students are treated as 'invisible'. A property with more than one non-student living in it will quality to pay the fully amount of council tax.

It is very important that if you are going to be living with one or more non-students that you decide who will be paying this bill. Students are treated as invisible when calculating the tax, but your housemates may find it unfair for you not to contribute.

It is worth remembering that non-students may be able to claim Council Tax Benefit if they are on a low income.

Personal Insurance
Wherever you go on placement, it is essential to take out insurance as it is not safe to assume your employer will always be responsible for insurance. In the case of injury at work in the UK if it can be shown that you have not followed the Health and Safety at Work Act despite all reasonable attempts by your employer to train and inform you of how to work safely then you may not be covered by an insurance policy. Furthermore, if you injure yourself during your leisure time while on placement then you are unlikely to be covered by an employer’s policy.

When you begin your placement, check with the personnel department to see if they have extra insurance or any scheme that you could join to cover you at work. It would also be prudent to investigate this before your placement to help you with budgeting for the year.

Contents Insurance
It is always necessary to insure your property irrespective of what country you are in. Investigate a range of policies and get the one that suits you best. Be honest about costing up your property so that you can be sure to have the right amount of cover should anything be damaged or stolen.

Health Insurance
Outside the UK, health insurance and personal liability insurance are regarded as necessities. Medical treatment is unlikely to be free if you are working abroad.

Read the leaflet "Health Advice for Travellers" – pick one up free from the Post Office.

The "Health Advice Leaflets for Travellers" gives you a country by country guide to obtaining medical treatment. For most EU countries, you can apply for a refund of most of the cost of emergency treatment, providing you were treated in a state hospital or clinic, or visited by a doctor operating a state-aided service. The system is similar to entitlement under the Health Service in the UK.

Making a claim
Before buying a policy, check how you would go about making a claim.

Are you allowed to get private treatment, as not every doctor or hospital will accept state-funded patients or insurance restricting cover to the same as provided by the state. A good policy will include travel home for medical treatment and possessions insurance. For those studying abroad your LEA may contribute to the cost of insurance if the placement is an essential part of your course.

Exclusions
Read the small print – make sure that the policy is suitable for placements. Exclusion may be on the grounds of pre-existing medical conditions. Endsleigh have agreed to cover people with asthma, diabetes or epilepsy under certain conditions, so do check. Another exclusion is cover for anything that happened whilst under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Please be aware that many annual travel insurance policies (such as the one that may come with your credit card) will probably not cover placements. Although they may be annual policies, most of them have a limit on the maximum continuos duration of cover, e.g. not more than one month at a time, which would exclude most placements.

Personal Liability
Greater importance is placed on having cover in countries where medical treatment is chargeable.

(Be careful in France and Germany where you employer will not give you liability cover, but expect you to get your own.)

As a condition of your placement, you need a policy as much for the protection of other employees as anything else. Policies sold in Britain exclude liability cover in connection with your occupation. Endsleigh can offer cover for administrative work to students on placement.