New Cabinet wants to drastically cut welfare benefits for high-income earners

The new Jetten I Cabinet plans to significantly cut benefits for people who earned high incomes, NOS calculated from a measure briefly mentioned in the financial appendix of the coalition agreement. This will impact high-income earners who end up unemployed or unable to work due to illness or disability, for example. For the highest incomes, the reduction will be €926 gross per month, the broadcaster calculated.

Last year, 77,500 people received benefits that would be cut by €926 with this measure, according to data from the benefits agency UWV. Another 83,000 people’s benefits would be cut by lower amounts. The measure is scheduled to take effect in 2029.

The coalition wants to cut benefits by lowering the maximum daily wage - the last earned daily salary on which the benefit is calculated. Currently, that maximum is €4,631.90 gross per month. According to NOS, the new government wants to lower it to €3,705.52.

The lower ceiling will affect people who earned higher salaries than €3,705.52 gross per month and are receiving benefits like unemployment (WW), disability and illness (WIA), parental leave, partner leave, and adoption leave.

The D66, VVD, and CDA hope that lowering the benefit ceiling will reduce the influx of people into the WIA. They also want to make social insurance like unemployment benefits more “activating” - reducing benefits could be an incentive to get back to work.

Many people with long-term illnesses are very concerned about the plan, the advocacy group Patient Federation told NOS. The broadcaster spoke to one such person: Sander van Boxtel, an IT worker who can barely work due to liver disease and cancer. If the plan is implemented, his WIA benefit will be reduced by €600 per month. “This measure is marketed as if it will affect the highest incomes. But if you’re on the WIA, no one has a high income anymore,” Van Boxtel told NOS.

Due to his illness, he has to regularly travel from his home in 's-Hertogenbosch to Amsterdam for treatment. He has significant additional expenses for travel, parking at hospitals, and medications not covered by his insurance. And he earns too much to qualify for healthcare benefits, Van Boxtel said. The government’s plan will leave him with around €2,000 a month to pay for his fixed expenses, living expenses, and medical costs. He is already selling his house because his financial situation is unsustainable.

And then the government apparently wants to “activate” him to get back to work. “I get furious when I hear that,” Van Boxtel said. “Work is a source of pride for me, social contact - I really want to work. With a debilitating liver disease and cancer, do you really need an incentive? It makes me sad.”