Large municipalities are happy with the new ministerial post for poverty policy. Aldermen in various municipalities already have more experience with this portfolio and hope that the minister will adopt a locally successful poverty policy.
Poverty is especially common in the big cities. The municipalities are responsible for implementing the poverty policy, but the cabinet now wants to do more. Over the next four years, the intended minister Carola Schouten, who is visiting formateur Mark Rutte today, wants to halve the number of children in poverty.
coordination role
Michiel Grauss, alderman for poverty alleviation in Rotterdam, is pleased that a minister will soon focus specifically on poverty policy. “We have seen in Rotterdam that it works to give someone the coordination role.” In 2016, one in four Rotterdam children lived in poverty, now that is one in six.
Because each municipality draws up its own poverty policy, it differs per municipality which help is available. Sometimes those differences are very painful, says Alderman Grauss. “A family is then entitled to 2000 euros in one place more than three kilometers away.”
pause button
Amsterdam also has its own poverty policy with specific measures. For example, Amsterdam residents with debt counseling will no longer receive bills until the problem is solved. That takes away stress and prevents new difficulties, such as mental problems and job loss, says Marjolein Moorman, alderman for poverty in Amsterdam.
She hopes that Schouten will introduce this ‘pause button’ throughout the Netherlands. “That’s one way to get people out of debt and poverty quickly.”
The Rotterdam alderman Grauss also sees a lot of stress among people who live in poverty. “That’s why you, as a government, have to be stress-sensitive,” he says. “If people don’t pay a bill or fine, you can send a letter, but you can also ask what they need from you.” The approach has been successful: where people with financial problems previously often dropped out of debt relief from the municipality, now half as much is lost.
Leeuwarden
The Leeuwarden alderman Hein Kuiken estimates that about 20 percent of the inhabitants of his municipality have difficulty making ends meet. In some neighborhoods it is even 50 percent. To prevent a new generation from growing up in poverty, the policy in the Frisian capital is mainly aimed at young children.
“Unfortunately, we do extremely little for adults,” says Kuiken. “As a municipality, we would like to experiment with canceling debts, so that they no longer suffer from that daily stress, but can work on their future again.”
livelihood
The new cabinet is allocating 500 million euros a year for the reform of the labor market and the fight against poverty and debt. The aldermen hope that Schouten will not only tackle existing poverty, but also increase livelihoods in order to prevent new poverty. They are afraid that the amount is too low to achieve the goals.
“So she will have to work really well with her colleagues to prevent poverty from occurring,” says Moorman. Her Rotterdam colleague Grauss: “Oral health care is not included in the basic package, so she has to discuss it with the Minister of Health. She has to talk to Justice and Security about fines and collections. My advice is: do it together and go with it. whole cabinet to get involved.”
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