The new Dutch coalition’s plans to fuse child benefits will make the least difference to families who depend on the money most, economic planning agency CPB has warned.

The cabinet of D66, VVD and CDA wants to combine the payments for child benefit, which is universal, and the means-tested child budget for families on low incomes.

People claiming the latter have been driven into debt because the payments did not reflect changes in their income and they later received demands to repay thousands of euros.

Repayment of child benefits has been a sensitive issue since the toeslagenaffaire, or childcare benefits scandal, in which families were branded fraudsters by the tax office and ordered to refund their childcare allowance if they made minor errors in the paperwork.

The coalition parties say merging the two benefits will simplify the system and reduce the risk of families having to make repayments if they do not report changes in their income in time.

They want to streamline the system by creating a single benefit with a top-up rate for poorer families, administered by the social security bank SVB. The two current payments are handled by different agencies.

But the CPB said the reforms would increase the flat-rate payment while reducing the variable element, meaning families who do not currently receive the top-up payment would benefit more.

Child benefit is currently set at €295 per quarter for each child up to the age of six, increasing to €422 for teenagers, while the means-tested child budget is worth up to €2,580 per child.

According to the CPB’s calculations, families only receiving child benefit will be between €238 and €339 a year better off per child, while those who are eligible for both payments will only gain between €30 and €131.