“The CPB really looks at the group whose income is no longer sufficient to properly spend all basic expenses,” says Nibud director Arjan Vliegenthart. Nibud approaches those numbers differently than the CPB. Nibud looks at which households have to make adjustments to the budget in order to get it appropriate again.
According to Vliegenthart, people are often not aware of allowances and schemes that they can use. A matter of knowing, being able and daring, says the director. “You also need to have the skills to apply for a certain scheme, know where to go.” According to Vliegenthart, the system is too complex and the threshold too high, especially when multiple allowances can be applied for.