Spring budget update: Billions extra for asylum, municipalities, Groningen quake victims

The outgoing government is presenting the Spring Memorandum, the spring update to the national budget, today. The outgoing Cabinet is spending billions on asylum shelters, victims of the benefits scandal and Groningen gas extraction earthquakes, and filling gaps in municipal budgets, sources told NOS.

The Spring Memorandum includes over 1 billion euros extra for the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), the broadcaster’s sources said. That is 375 million euros extra for this year and 700 million euros extra for 2025. The money is mainly to cover the costs of emergency shelters and keep existing crisis shelters available.

An extra 1.3 billion euros will go to parents affected by the childcare allowance scandal—400 million euros this year and 900 million euros next year. So far, 68,000 people have come forward as victims, and the government has recognized 33,000 of them. According to NOS, the handling of the benefits scandal has already cost over 8 billion euros.

The government also set aside an additional 500 million euros for Groningen residents who suffered damage to their homes due to earthquakes caused by gas extraction.

Municipalities can expect an extra 715 million euros this year and next year to help them make ends meet. The municipal fund was cut because the government expected that the merger of municipalities would save money. However, municipalities’ costs increased significantly, partly because they have been given many government tasks. From 2026, the extra amount will drop to 75 million euros per year.

The outgoing government is also setting up a Guarantee Fund for heating networks in municipalities. The fund will contain 250 million euros for the period up to 2030. The government is also increasing the Heat Investment Subsidy from 400 to 920 million euros to help make existing heat networks more profitable and, therefore, less expensive for families linked to them.

On Friday, it was already leaked that the government had set aside an additional 1 billion euros for military aid to Ukraine—to the outrage of the PVV and BBB, two of the parties involved in the Cabinet formation negotiations. The government is also investing more in the armed forces to meet the NATO standard on defense spending—2 percent of GDP.

With all this extra expenditure, the budget deficit will be -2.8 percent next year, still below the EU requirement of no more than -3 percent. The national debt will be 49.3 percent of GDP. The EU requirement is that it remains below 60 percent of GDP.