Tens of thousands of additional tenants will be entitled to housing benefit from 2024. The cabinet is relaxing the rules to qualify for the supplement.
Tenants are now only entitled to housing benefit if they live in a house below a certain rent limit (in 2022 that will be 763.47 euros per month). The government wants to gradually abolish this limit from 2024. Tenants who live in a more expensive rented house will then also be entitled to housing benefit. In addition, the age limit for eligibility for housing benefit will be lowered from 23 to 21 years.
The only thing that will be looked at when determining the rent allowance is how much someone earns. That is already the case. The limit for this is more than 30,000 euros per year for a multi-person household.
As a result of the change, some 136,000 people who are currently not entitled to an allowance will receive one in the future. That can earn them up to 340 euros per month. The new calculation also has consequences for people who already receive housing benefit. About 1 million people will benefit from the new system, up to a maximum of 292 euros per month. Just under 300,000 households are actually declining, up to a maximum of 98 euros per month. This is apparent from the preliminary calculations that accompany the bill.
Unnecessarily complicated system
The new system will be introduced in stages. In total, the cabinet will allow five years for this. About one and a half million tenants now receive housing benefit in the Netherlands. That costs about 4 billion euros per year. That amount will increase by 300 million euros.
The government finds the current system unnecessarily complicated because rent allowance is now also looked at the rent in addition to someone’s income. It is estimated that tens of thousands of people are now wrongly not applying for the allowance. Also, too many people who need the allowance are not entitled to it. Due to the tightness in the housing market, lower incomes also have to rely on an expensive rental house in the private sector, which means that they are now unable to claim an allowance. As a result, they are more likely to run out of money.
Rent reduction for half a million tenants
To do something about poverty among tenants, the cabinet is introducing another bill. In 2024, it is estimated that half a million tenants of housing association homes will have their rent reduced once to 550 euros per month. Agreements have already been made about this with the housing associations. Anyone who earns up to 120 percent of the social minimum (for singles that is about 1,300 euros per month and for couples around 1800 euros) but pays a rent that is higher than 550 euros per month, is entitled to this rent reduction. At the request of the housing associations, the tax authorities will provide information about who meets the income requirement.
Anyone who loses their job in 2024 and falls below that income limit can also claim the scheme. He or she must then request this from the landlord himself. The rule does not apply the other way around: anyone who suddenly starts earning more in 2024 will not lose their right to rent reduction. The rule only applies to housing associations and not to other landlords. After 2024, the reduced rents may rise again, but not more than the statutory maximum set annually.
Eliminate surcharges
The simplification of the housing allowance is in line with the government’s intention to abolish all allowances in the long run. The arrangements are complicated and people face high recoveries if their income increases in the interim. The childcare allowance will disappear in the coming years. Instead, childcare will be virtually free. No solution has yet been found for the health care allowance. And also abolishing the rent allowance and instead transferring the money to the landlords so that rents can be reduced, turns out to be too complicated.
Watch our most viewed news videos in the playlist below:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
#Rules #housing #benefit #simplified #tens #thousands #extra #people #entitled