If you earn too much in the municipality of Land van Cuijk and you need extra help with the household, you will soon have to pay for it yourself. The municipality will introduce an income test for applications for domestic help under the Social Support Act (Wmo). That is not allowed by law. But the municipality says it has no other choice. The Catholic Association for the Elderly in Brabant is furious.
If you now need household help under the Wmo, you can submit an application. It doesn’t matter how much you earn. Since 2020, you have to pay a personal contribution of 19 euros per month, regardless of how high your income is. “Since income is no longer taken into account, we are seeing many more applications. Especially for domestic help,” says councilor Willy Hendriks.
And that causes problems, according to the alderman. There is a shortage of people to provide domestic help to everyone. “We have to spread the people we have over more applications,” she says. “The lowest incomes are the victims of this. They receive less help. I believe that the strongest shoulders should bear the heaviest burdens.”
“There is already a dire need to do this.”
If you earn more than 185 percent of the social minimum, you will no longer receive domestic help from the Wmo. This amounts to an income of approximately 43,000 euros gross per year. You will then have to arrange the household help yourself. “We want to look at it on a case-by-case basis,” says Hendriks. For example, someone may have large debts and is therefore entitled to assistance.
In the meantime, the national government is working on a law that stipulates that people who earn more must also contribute more for the help they receive. But that law will not be introduced before 2026. The municipality of Land van Cuijk does not want to wait for that. “It is already urgent to do this,” says the councilor. “And it is still very unclear whether the law will also be introduced in 2026.”
Willy Hendriks is not afraid that she will be rebuffed by the government. “No, there are already two municipalities that do this. They didn’t push that back either.”
“You can’t just exclude a group of people from help.”
The Katholieke Ouderenbond Brabant is furious about the municipality’s plans. “This is really not possible,” says lawyer Bert van ‘t Laar of the association. “It’s against the law. You cannot simply exclude an entire group of people from help. And that is what the municipality is doing with this.”
According to van ‘t Laar, the municipality of Land van Cuijk exaggerates the problem that many people with a higher income use domestic help. According to the lawyer, only six percent of domestic help goes to people who would not be entitled to it. “Yes, there is an attractive effect. But it has not been proven that things are going to extremes.”
The Land van Cuijk municipal council will discuss the plans on Thursday evening. “If these continue, I am afraid that more municipalities will follow,” says Van ‘t Laar.