€1 million in severance pay for former members of twice-collapsed Schoof I Cabinet
The double-collapse of the Schoof I Cabinet cost taxpayers approximately €1 million in severance pay for fallen PVV and NSC Cabinet members in 2025 alone, the Telegraaf reported, based on the latest severance pay overview from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations.
Politicians are entitled to severance pay after their political careers to bridge the gap between jobs. The anonymous data provides a broad overview of the total amount of severance pay paid to resigned Cabinet members. As the PVV and NSC were the only Cabinet members to resign last year, it is clear that the amount went to them.
The Ministry is not allowed to disclose who received how much money. But since the PVV pulled out of the Schoof Cabinet first, it can be deduced that the PVV Ministers and State Secretaries received a larger share of the €1 million total. PVV leader Geert Wilders collapsed the Cabinet in June 2025. The NSC pulled out in August.
The amount excludes severance pay to Nora Achabar, who stepped down from her position as State Secretary for Allowances in 2024.
This bill could rise significantly in the coming period, especially if parliamentarians forced to step down due to the Cabinet’s collapse struggle to find new jobs quickly.
The severance pay arrangement can also be used by politicians whose new job pays significantly less than the political position they previously held. After the parliamentary election last year, new parliamentarians who were previously in higher-paid positions - former Ministers, State Secretaries, or aldermen, for example - could apply for their wages to be supplemented.
Many decided against doing so, arguing that the parliamentary salary is already generous enough, and supplementing it shouldn’t be an option. Several parties had scrapping the scheme in their election program for the parliamentary elections. Remarkably, the PVV, whose members last year received a share of €1 million in severance pay, was one of them.
