Cabinet plans will hit more households harder than forecast

Nearly six in 10 people will have less money to spend each month because of the new cabinet’s policies, according to calculations sent to parliament by social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher.


Some 14% of households will have between 5% and 10% less to spend while 3%, or 220,000 households, will see their disposable income cut by more than 10%.
High-earning single income households will be particularly hard hit. The traditional family with father earning €66,000 a year (double the average income), will lose 6.25% of their spending power over four years.
By contrast, single parent families on a minimum income will have some 7% more to spend, the figures show. Low income households will all benefit from the changes.

Cumulative effect

‘The increase in value-added tax, income-related health insurance premiums and making parents pay for school books – these all have a cumulative effect,’ RTL news correspondent Frits Wester said.
In the briefing Asscher stresses that the figures are an estimate and do not take into account inflation, wage rises and other macro-economic developments.
‘We are going to look at how we can limit the cases that stand out,’ Asscher said.
Large group
Halbe Zijlstra, leader of the VVD parliamentary party, told Radio 1 on Tuesday no income group will lose more than 4% of their spending power through the new government’s policies.
Broadcaster RTL estimated last week some people could lose up to 30%.
Zijlstra did say that if policies lead to major reductions in spending power the cabinet could make a new agreement but only if ‘the loss in spending power is more than 10% and for a large group’.
According to the Telegraaf, some households will be much harder hit than indicated in the new figures because these have been averaged out. But it is unclear what the new cabinet means by ‘large groups’, the paper says.
MPs decided on Wednesday afternoon to hold their traditional first debate with ministers next Tuesday, after the national family spending institute Nibud has completed its own calculations on the likely effect of government policy.
Have your fears been soothed by the new minister’s briefing? Have your say using the comment box below.

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