Students, healthcare sector, seniors' organisation have concerns about national budget

The outgoing Rutte IV Cabinet’s budget for next year was met with concerns from various sectors. Students feel forgotten, senior citizens are worried about cutbacks, the healthcare sector wants more attention, and Oxfam Novib called cuts to development cooperation “inhumane.”

The Cabinet “seems to have forgotten” students in the national budget, student union LSVb said. “The basic study grant will be lower and the rents higher. The outcome of that sum is quite simple: we will not make ends meet like this,” chairwoman Eilsa Weehuizen said. The basic study grant returned this academic year, with students living away from home receiving an extra 164.30 euros per year as a temporary purchasing power measure. The government did not extend that measure.

The LSVb also called the 400 euros energy allowance allocated to students who live on their own this year “disappointing,” and students hardly benefit from other poverty measures. “Many people benefit from the increase in housing allowance, but students are not eligible for it.” The scheme only covers independent accommodation, not student dorms. The LSVb called it “more than logical to make the rental allowance apply to everyone.”

Student union ISO also said the government did nothing to improve students’ purchasing power. “The suitcase remained nearly empty for students,” chairman Demi Janssen said. She also fears that the quality of higher education will deteriorate due to budget cuts.

Healthcare

Healthcare is still not a priority for the government, the professional organization for healthcare NU’91 said. The sector is “underexposed again,” and the healthcare budget is not-future proof because it is not focused on healthcare employees, said chairman Femke Merel van Kooten. “It is all hands on deck every day for healthcare professionals, but the Cabinet plans do not show that urgency at all,” said Van Kooten. “The government consciously does not invest in attracting new nurses and caregivers.”

According to her, there is a lack of concrete policy to actually tackle the problems in healthcare. “People are already waiting unnecessarily long for suitable care. Patients cannot go to a nursing home or hospice due to long waiting lists. Home care organizations are increasingly refusing new clients. Or operations are postponed indefinitely due to a lack of professionals. The Cabinet closes its eyes to the major problems and has already accepted the situation.”

Hospitals’ association NVZ also called on the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, to put healthcare high on the political agenda and invest in nurses. The umbrella organization for academic hospitals NFU said the government is doing too little to combat staff shortages in the sector. The NFU wants the government to “drastically reduce administrative burdens, make the exchange of personnel VAT-free, and make working more hours worthwhile for nurses and medical support staff.”

Senior citizens

Organizations advocating for senior citizens are very concerned about the planned cuts in geriatric care. The government scrapped a significant part of the planned cuts in the sector, but the Seniors Coalition foresees problems with those that remain. “With the remaining measures, the outgoing Cabinet is putting a brake on its own policy to allow people to live independently as long as possible,” the Seniors Coalition wrote after the King’s Budget Day speech on Tuesday. “The threshold for moving to a nursing home has already been greatly increased.”

Development aid

Aid organization Oxfam Novib called it “immoral and undemocratic” that the government made cuts to development aid. The national budget showed approximately 7 percent less money spent on it. “For 2023, this involves a cut of over 280 million euros, while almost 1 billion euros more development money will be used in the next three years to cover the rising costs of asylum reception in the Netherlands,” Oxfam Novib said.

The first-year asylum reception is paid for from the budget of outgoing Minister Liesje Schreinemachger (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.) She said Tuesday that existing development aid operations would continue “as much as possible,” but less money is available for new projects.

“It is unimaginable and immoral that the government is sacrificing support for the poorest and most vulnerable. Terrible disasters are occurring in rapid succession, for the first time more than 100 million people are on the run, and climate change is leading to more drought and food shortages,” said Michiel Servaes, general director of Oxfam Novib.

Partos, the trade organization for development cooperation, finds the cuts “sharp and unnecessary,” according to director Liana Hoornweg. “Better to stop with fossil subsidies,” she said. She called the Netherlands “an unreliable partner for other countries, companies, and development organizations.”