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Say doei to one-minute showers, surviving off 80c ramen noodles, and start planning a luxurious yacht holiday — the Dutch government is potentially scheming up a plan to drop some extra cash in your bank account.
The moolah, in the form of a toeslag (allowance), would pay €500 to people living in the Netherlands with low or middle incomes, the NOS reports.
Is that you? It could be if:
✅ You are single and earn less than €32,000 gross per year, or
✅ You and your partner earn less than €41,000 gross per year combined.
Of course, you could be saying “Nothing comes for free,” right? We love a bit of scepticism!
But no stress: while this cash is free, it’s meant to ease the burden of the rising energy costs and inflation — so yeah, you’ll probs have to spend it. Kiss goodbye to that yacht! 😗
While we would love to tell you to exit out of this article and open your banking app straight away (wait, don’t do that, this is important!), the measure hasn’t been confirmed yet — and to be honest, it’s all a bit vague.
The proposal came from left-wing parties, GroenLinks and PvdA, and Prime Minister Mark Rutte is seriously considering the cash splash — but doesn’t want to rush it.
(Cough, we could argue that ol’ mate Rutte had no problem rushing the decisions that led to the toeslagenaffair where thousands of families were wrongfully accused of duping the government into paying allowances and forced to pay back thousands of euros, but whatever, cough).
Give us more, more, more (alsjeblieft)
The left-wing is also proposing a rent freeze, but Rutte has already nipped that idea in the bud, saying “a rent freeze is no longer possible.”
Luckily, the government isn’t standing still on inflation. We’ll begrudgingly admit they have reduced energy taxes and the excise duty on fuel, increased minimum wage, and sent minimum wage households €800. That’s a start!
And holy moly, we need it. The Dutch Central Planning Board recently calculated that up to 1.2 million households could struggle with monthly expenses in the future.
Fingers, toes, and legs are crossed that these measures get over the line. Do you think it’s enough? Tell us in the comments below!
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