News item | 26-11-2025 | 5:00 PM
The sustainability of the Social Support Act (Wmo) is under pressure. This is due to developments outside social support itself, over which municipalities only partially have control. That is why clear political choices are needed to keep social support available and accessible for vulnerable people. This is evident from the 2015 Wmo Sustainability Study, which was commissioned jointly by municipalities (VNG) and the government. Today the final report was presented to State Secretary Pouw-Verweij (Long-term and Social Care) and the administrative delegation of municipalities (VNG).
State Secretary Pouw-Verweij: “Everyone deserves to be able to participate in our society. When you need help, for example due to illness, disability or old age, appropriate support must be available. This research clearly maps out the choices we face, as the government and municipalities, to keep this available and accessible now and in the future. These are also major system choices. That is why it is up to the next cabinet to provide direction here together with municipalities.”
Councilor Kramers (municipality of Leeuwarden, VNG board member): “The report comes at the right time. As municipalities, we are really concerned whether residents – if we do nothing – can still count on good support from the Wmo in the future. The aging population and the pressure in other systems (including mental health care, Wlz) means that significantly more people are relying on the Wmo. And at the same time, the available number of informal caregivers and professionals is decreasing. To address this, we have as a starting point that the government and municipalities must invest together in caring communities and collective support. That we, as one government, monitor coherence in services to residents. And that the preconditions for municipalities to properly implement the law (financially and in terms of powers) are in order.health in all policies‘ is reflected in the entire coalition agreement and in the council agreements. We would like to discuss this with the new cabinet.”
Recommendations from the report
One of the recommendations is to organize more coherence between the social and healthcare domains, so that it is clear to people where and how they can receive which support. Consideration must also be given to people with lifelong and life-wide disabilities who require long-term support.
In addition, the scarce number of personnel must be better distributed among the increasing group of people who need support. This can be done by providing professionals, providers and municipalities with frameworks within which they can determine which groups need social support most and by supporting the use of informal care. The conclusions also recommend that support be offered collectively rather than individually where possible.
This also means ensuring a clear policy agenda and sufficient resources for a strong social base. Personal contributions to social support can be made income- and asset-dependent.
Improve preconditions
It is important to improve a number of the preconditions so that the Wmo 2015 can function better and to strengthen the administrative relationships between the government and municipalities. The report states that it is necessary to further develop a number of national frameworks, support lines and standards in order to strengthen the quality of implementation in all municipalities. The government and the VNG will work together to follow up on the conclusions of the study.