Extra 20 million a year for councils to tackle early-stage debt

Minister of Social Affairs and Employment Hans Vijlbrief announced the additional funding on 24 September. Councils can use the money, for example, to employ more staff to identify debt at an early stage and to make personal contact more often with residents who are behind on payments. [1]

According to Rijksoverheid, landlords, health insurers, energy suppliers and drinking water companies send councils around one million alerts about emerging payment arrears each year. These are reports, not necessarily one million different households. According to the report, councils are required to contact residents after receiving such an alert and see whether they can help. [1]

The new administrative agreements are also intended to improve the quality of these reports, so that councils can use more alerts. Rijksoverheid announced that the agreements would be signed on 24 September by the minister, VNG, NVVK, Divosa and representatives of landlords and the companies involved. [1]

The aim is for councils to reach twice as many households with early-stage debt and be able to offer help. The source gives no baseline number or timeframe for this. Moreover, this concerns reaching households and offering help, not a demonstrated doubling of the number of people receiving help or becoming debt-free. [1]