Realistic hope for increase in social benefits, minimum wage and AOV

On December 6 the  Committee for Kingdom Relations of the First Chamber will meet with State Secretary Jetta Klijnsma of Social Affairs and Employment and Minister Ronald Plasterk of the Interior about defining a minimum for the social subsistence in the Caribbean Netherlands.

The Senate urged the Cabinet already for some time to determine what the lower limit of social benefits – including Onderstand and AOV – and the minimum wage should be to meet the basic needs for such things as food, clothing and housing on the BES islands . For many years, the BES islands had reported to The Hague that the level of the social benefits and the minimum wage is way to low to make ends meet. The evaluation by the Committee Spies confirmed this.  However, up to now, the government seemed not to take any note of these concerns. Only after a proposition in the Second Chamber was adopted, Klijnsma started to move. Recently, she indicated to have prepared a proposal. She wanted to discuss this first with the island governments. This could take place this month.

Incidentally, in the budget of Social Affairs for next year, the reservation for the benefits in the Caribbean Netherlands more than doubled compared to this year, namely, from 2 million to 4.9 million euros. This is further increased to 5.2 million in 2018 and 5.5 million in 2019.

From Antilliaans Dagblad