People with a disability or chronic illness could be left hundreds of euros a month worse off under the coalition’s planned health and social security cuts, according to calculations by family spending institute Nibud.
Households that rely on several of the affected schemes could face up to around €300 a month in extra costs, or more than €3,500 a year. That comes on top of the €1,000 to €4,500 a year these households already spend because of their condition, which the institute calculated in a separate 2024 study.
The research was commissioned by Ieder(in), the umbrella organisation for people with disabilities and chronic illness, together with the patients’ federation Patiëntenfederatie Nederland and carers’ group MantelzorgNL. The three want the cabinet to drop the plans.
Nibud modelled the impact on eight example households. In one, a single person on social assistance with a mobility impairment, who already pays €241 a month more than someone without a disability, would see that rise by a further €160, to €401 a month.
Measures that stack up
The institute says that the main problem is how the social security cuts would interact. Nibud director Mattias Gijsbertsen said scrapping the tax deduction for certain medical costs would raise people’s taxable income, which could in turn reduce their healthcare allowance and push up the income-related contributions they pay towards care.
The plans include a higher own risk payment, income-related contributions for council-provided home care under the social support act (Wmo), and the removal of several medicines from the basic insurance package.
Cuts to social security hit the same group. The coalition wants to scrap the IVA benefit paid to people who are permanently and fully unable to work, which would mean future claimants receiving 70% of their last salary rather than 75%.
Compensation questions
The coalition plans to cut nearly €6.5 billion from social security. It has earmarked €350 million to compensate people with a disability or chronic illness, but has not said how that will be shared out, handing the money to local councils to distribute.
The councils’ association VNG has said councils often cannot help this group because it falls outside their remit, and that many of those affected are not known to the local authority. The cabinet is due to publish its own analysis before the summer.
On Tuesday, leder(in) and Patiëntenfederatie Nederland handed parliament a book of personal stories collected through their #IkKanNietMeer (“I can’t cope any more”) campaign, launched in May.
