The government is sticking to the plan to actively approach people who are entitled to social assistance benefits, but do not use them. In one letter to the House of Representatives Minister Thierry Aartsen (Work and Participation, VVD) writes that the cabinet no longer wants to scrap so-called ‘proactive services’ for reaching people who are entitled to general assistance.
In the Spring Memorandum, an adjustment to the budget, the cabinet decided last month to scrap that plan that had been prepared for years. After criticism from municipalities and the House of Representatives, the government is now backtracking.
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The government is scrapping a plan that has been prepared for years to actively approach people who are missing out on social assistance. ‘This is very unwise’
‘Proactive service distribution’ is intended to reduce poverty, including among workers. An estimated one in three people who are entitled to social assistance benefits do not use them. As a result, more than 150,000 people unnecessarily live below the subsistence level. This is, for example, because they do not know that they are entitled to it, find the rules too complicated and/or are afraid of making mistakes.
30 million euros per year had been reserved for the plan, but the cabinet preferred to close gaps elsewhere in the budget. It was one of the ways in which the government wanted to pay for a setback in the WIA disability benefit. There, the number of applications from long-term sick employees is increasing faster than previously expected.
Municipalities were dismayed by the decision and urged the government to reverse it. There was also little support for the cuts in the House of Representatives. The House indicated “in various debates that it would prefer to find alternative coverage,” Aartsen writes. Aartsen wants to find this coverage through a change in the child-related budget.
How much child budget parents receive depends on their income. The previous government decided to give parents with an income of more than 60,000 euros less child-related budget from 2027. Aartsen now wants to lower that ‘breaking point’ to an income of 57,950 euros. A proposal to this effect will be submitted to Parliament “shortly”.
