FNV: ‘Discount on municipal tax for more people’ | Financial

The social minimum is the minimum amount a person needs to live on. According to FNV, these people should also be able to make use of provisions such as special assistance for unforeseen, necessary medical costs.

FNV vice-chairman Kitty Jong says that “by raising that limit, which in many municipalities is now 110 to 130 percent of the legal social minimum, more people can keep their heads above water. This also applies to the so-called working poor.” For a single person aged 21 or older, the statutory social minimum is more than €1200.

It is one of the points that the trade union FNV mentions in a presentation to tackle poverty at the local level. On the occasion of World Poverty Day, the union is presenting a plan in which it calls on municipalities to adopt it in their poverty policy. FNV believes that “a dignified life should be affordable for everyone”, but states that the Netherlands is “a long way from there”.

According to Jong, low incomes, high housing and healthcare costs and the so-called cost-sharing norm lead to “needless poverty, accumulating debt, stress and social isolation”. The cost-sharing standard means that social assistance benefits are adjusted to the number of adults living in a household. Jong believes that ‘poverty is punished in the Netherlands, while we should tackle the causes’.

In 2020, in addition to FNV, the Woonbond, the elderly organization KBO-PCOB and the Association of Social Advocacy Netherlands signed the call to delete the cost-sharing standard. The FNV also previously launched the menstrual poverty manifesto with a number of other parties, as part of the local poverty policy. In the Netherlands, one in ten girls and women has insufficient money to buy menstrual products, as a result of which, for example, classes at school are missed.

The union asks municipalities to include the points from the plan in the municipal agreement after the municipal elections in March next year. FNV also calls on the national government to do more against poverty. For example, by raising the statutory minimum wage from €10 to €14 gross per hour.

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