Dutch government increases childcare allowance to cover rising costs

The government will increase the childcare allowance slightly more next year to compensate for the sharply rising costs of childcare, Minister Karien van Gennip (Social Affairs and Employment) said in a letter to parliament on Tuesday. She blamed the deviation from the usual procedure on the “exceptional and unforeseen higher inflation,” NOS reports.

Last week, RTL Nieuws reported that childcare costs were increasing significantly more than the allowance next year, by 10 and 5.6 percent, respectively. That means parents will have to spend considerably more on childcare next year.

Van Gennip “can well imagine that this will keep parents awake,” she said in her letter to parliament. She decided to intervene now instead of with the publication of the Spring Memorandum as she originally planned to prevent parents from quitting their jobs to stay at home because childcare becomes too expensive. Instead of 5.6 percent, the maximum hourly rate parents can receive through the childcare allowance will increase by 6.54 percent.

This slight extra increase will cost an estimated 57 million euros, on top of the approximately 225 million euros the Cabinet had already earmarked for the rise in childcare allowance.