An annual 2,500 pensioners who are not entitled to a full state pension are set join the growing list of elderly people who rely on top-up welfare benefits, social affairs minister Paul de Krom said in a briefing to MPs.

Some 38,000 pensioners are now claiming welfare benefits (bijstand) because they have not lived in the Netherlands since they were 15 – the starting age to build up state pension rights.
Some 90% of claimants are immigrants who do not meet the 50-year residency rule, De Krom said. The rest are native Dutch people who have spent time living or working abroad.