Applying for social assistance

If you have too little money to get by, you may be entitled to social assistance (bijstand). You can apply for social assistance at your municipality or the werk.nl website, an online work platform operated by the Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen – UWV (Employee Insurance Agency).

You are entitled to social assistance if you:

are a Dutch citizen or lawfully resident in the Netherlands, and;
are aged 18 or over;
do not have enough income or funds to get by. Your (joint) income must be below the social assistance standard (in Dutch);
cannot claim any other provision or benefit;
are not in prison or in a detention house.

There are also a number of obligations when you receive social assistance (in Dutch).

This is how it works for you

Your (future) place of residence falls under:

Municipality of Stichtse Vecht

Here is some information from your municipality.

Applying for social assistance

Please note: you can only apply for bijstand (social assistance) if you live in the Netherlands and are registered with a municipality.

You are eligible for assistance if you meet the following conditions:

You are not eligible for any other social assistance, such as unemployment or disability assistance
You are 18 years of age or older
If you are younger than 27, you can get social assistance benefit after you have looked for work or training for 4 weeks. The 4 weeks start after you have reported to the municipality for assistance. If you have not found work or training during those 4 weeks, you can apply for social assistance benefit afterwards.
You are Dutch or treated as such. You are considered equivalent to a Dutch national if you come from an EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland or Switzerland, or if you have a valid residence permit.
You live or stay in the Netherlands
You have no or insufficient income of your own
You do not have any assets of your own, or assets that are permitted with social assistance benefit.
as a single person, you may not have more than € 7,575 in personal capital
If you are a single parent, married or have a cohabitation contract, you may not have more than € 15,150.
If you have more than € 63,900 in equity in your home, you can receive the social assistance benefit as a loan
You are not excluded from entitlement to social assistance, for example because you are serving a prison sentence

start with contacting the municipality
during this contact we will see if you can apply for social assistance and inform you about the follow-up procedure

You will find out within 8 weeks whether you will receive social assistance. You will receive social assistance from the date of the application.