Many companies offering private home help services are in severe financial difficulties, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report quoted in the Financieele Dagblad on Thursday.

‘They are working with structurally loss-making tariffs. Without action, bankruptcies will follow,’ PwC accountant Frank van Kommer tells the paper.
Some home help services – general cleaning and household duties – have been handed over to the local councils to organise, and they have shaved 10% off the €2bn annual budget, the paper says. Many companies have made tenders at below cost price in order to stay in business.
Of the 71 home help companies which have published figures, 36 are making a loss, the paper says.