childcare allowance

Single income families are falling behind in the Netherlands. Over the past years single-income homes paid relatively more tax than two-income households and that gap is only going to keep increasing, the Dutch office for economic policy analysis CPB said in a new report to the government. Single income households with children in particular pay more tax than similar two income households, RTL Nieuws reports.

In 2014 the Tax Authority wrongly stopped the childcare allowance for 232 families, National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen said in a report published on Wednesday .The Tax office took this measure because of suspicions that the allowance may have been misused, but did not take into account the serious financial consequences the measure would have for the affected parents, the Ombudsman said, ANP reports.

"The Tax Authority left the parents in an impossible position, major financial problems and long term uncertainty", Van Zutphen said. 

A citizens' intiative to introduce basic income in the Netherlands in 2018 will be submitted to parliament on Tuesday. The initiative has 58,800 signatures, significantly more than the 40 thousand needed to submit a proposal to parliament.

The Netherlands is emerging from the crisis stronger. Things are going better than expected, but still not good enough, according to Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem while presenting the Budget Memorandum to the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament. As per tradition, Dijsselbloem presented the Budget in the same briefcase his predecessor Lieftinck used to present the budget in 1946 after World War II. Dijsselbloem called the briefcase "a small symbol of recovery".