Expatica news

Families, pensioners benefit in budget giveaway

26 August 2005

AMSTERDAM — Families and retirees with supplementary pensions are tipped to be the main winners as the Dutch government puts the finishing touches to the 2006 budget.

Ministers have been working in recent weeks to come up with ways to minimise the negative impact on purchasing power of high oil prices and higher health insurance premiums in 2006.

The final details will not be made public until Budget Day in September but the main points have already been leaked.

Couples with children and retired people with both the national AOW and a supplementary pension will be the biggest beneficiaries of the budgetary measures, news agency ANP said on Friday.

ANP based its report on provisional calculations seen by “sources at the Binnenhof” (the parliament complex in The Hague).

Sole-income families with children that earn EUR 60,000 – twice the average income – will benefit of a 5.2 percent increase in purchasing power next year.

But single-salary families with children and who live on  the average salary of EUR 30,000 will see only a 0.7 percent annual increase in spending power.

Dual-income families in which one partner earns around EUR 60,000 and the other EUR 15,000 will benefit by about 3.2 percent, the sources said.

In stark contrast, dual-income couples with children bringing in a total of one and a half times the average wage (EUR 45,000) will not see any increase in spending power, if the reports are to be believed. Families on social welfare will benefit by 1 percent.

Single people will benefit the least from next year’s budget and again the higher the single person earns the less he or she will be negatively impacted by the government’s plans.

A single person earning twice the average income will surrender 0.1 percent of purchasing power, a single on the average salary will lose 0.5 percent and singles on minimum wage will see a 0.9 percent drop.

Single parents on minimum wage or average income will get an extra 0.6 percent in their wallet and single parents on welfare will see purchasing power rise by 0.5 percent from 2006.

Single parents with only the AOW national pension or a supplementary pension of EUR 5,000 a year will benefit by 2 percent.

Couples on the AOW get 0.5 percent but a retired couple with the AOW and a supplementary pension of EUR 10,000 or more will experience a 5.3 percent rise in spending power next year, ANP reported.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2005]

Subject: Dutch news