Nearly 300,000 tenants suffer from new housing benefit system in Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Woonbond, which defends the interests of tenants, the Association of Dutch Municipalities and the association of housing corporations Aedes find it unacceptable that almost 300,000 tenants are going backwards, they write in their response to the bill.
They fear that the number of victims could rise to 700,000 in the future and that many people will have payment problems because they cannot miss the allowance they have now.
The rent reduction agreed by the housing corporations in 2024 for the people with the lowest incomes will not ease the pain, because that reduction has already been included by the cabinet in the calculation of the effects of the new system.
The housing costs of almost 300,000 tenants are going up due to the introduction of a new system to calculate the rent allowance.
On average, they receive 28 euros less per month in allowance and therefore have to pay that amount themselves. In the worst case, it is about 98 euros per month.
This is evident from the Bill Reforming the Rent Allowance of Minister Hugo de Jonge for Housing and Spatial Planning, to which the parties involved can respond from today.
The new system is intended to take effect on 1 January 2024. There will then be a transitional period of five years.
People who deteriorate do not immediately feel all the pain. That will be a little more every year, until the full effect is felt in 2028.
