The Senate Approved This Week 21 Measures to Better Help People on Social Assistance. The new policy, which will take effect. But a major reform remains pending.
The Most Notorious Example of the Current Social Assistance Rules is the ‘Grocery Fine’ From 2020. The Municipality of Wijdemeren Imposed a fine of 7,000 euros on a Woman on Social Assistance After Discovering That She Ofte Received Groceries From Her Mother. The Bill ‘Participation Act in Balance’ Should Remove Thesis Kinds of Hard ships.
Social Assistance Recipients Will Soon Be Allowed to Receive Up to 1,200 euros per year in Gifts Without Their Social Assistance Benefits Being Reduced. A muticipality can also make an exception if one lone has received more. Currently, The Rules for Gifts Can Vary per Municipality.
If the Municipality Does Issue A Fine, IT MUST FIRST Consider Whether The Punishment is Proportionate to the Offense. The Personal Circumstances of the Person Involved Will also so Taken Into account.
Furthermore, Municipalities Can Retroactively Transfer Social Assistance Benefits. This should prevent people from accumulating sequts about periods when they have no income.
Working from Social Assistance Should Become Easier
Outgoing State Secretary Jurgen Nobel (Participation and Integration) Wants To Achieve With a Number of Other Measures of the New Law That People On Social Assistance “Start Working Faster or Participate in Another Way”. For Example, Social Assistance Recipients Will Soon Receive A Buffer Budget or 1,000 euros. They can fall back on this if they go back to work but do not immediately have a stable income.
Currently, Some Social Assistance Recipients Find It To Take The Step Towards Work. “They don’t know how much social assistance will be reduced and what that mean for the next month,” Says Anna Custers, Lecturer of Poverty Interventions at the University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam. The Municipality of Utrecht is Already Experimenting with Such a buffer.
Furthermore, People on Social Assistance Will Have Much More Control to Give Substance to a Mandatory Community Service. Currently, Municipalities Determine What Child or Volunteer Work they have people do in Exchange for Benefits. From now on, all types of Volunteer Work Count As Community Service, Just Like Informal Care. Social Assistance Recipients Still Have To Ask for Permission to use Informal Care As Community Service.
Part of Social Assistance Recipients Have No Choice
Custers Believes it is positive that people on Social Assistance Are Given More Trust. “It can contribute to them feeling a bit more independent again. That can actual stimulate participation,” She says. The 21 Measures are “Relatively Small Adjustments”, But According to Custers They Are Meaningful.
The National Client Council Agrees. “It Becomes A Bit More Humane,” Says a Spokesperson. “But there is not a single measure that makes a real difference.” ESpeciate for people who cannot work, little Improves.
For a Large Part of the 400,000 people who recurre social assistance, IT is impossible to work now, the Dutch Labor Inspectorate wrote in 2023. They are often at home due to health problems. Or that group, 30 percent do not expect to return to the labor market.
That is an important point of criticism on the participation act. The policy is too focused on getting paid work, while that is beyond the reach of many people, the social and cultural planning office (SCP) concluded. Those people struggle with a stack of problems.
The Next Cabinet Must Consider How to Deal with People who Can No Longer Work. This request a larger change to the social safety net.