Though lucky that I live in the Netherlands the welfare income is enough to cover your basic needs but insufficient to build up any buffers. I have a WAJONG welfare income since the first day I became 18 and that is 75% of the minimum wage. Supplemented with care & rent allowance to reduce fixed expenses slightly this is my total income. The SCP states that for me I need 1039 euros per month to be above the poverty line. I am above that, but barely by about 25 euros per month.
The fact that the SCP works with two budgets, one called the basic needs budget and the other 'not-much-but-sufficient' budget is already a problem. Here the distinction is made between primary and secondary needs budget but in a connected society like the Netherlands, the secondary needs are de facto primary needs as well. You can try to live without but it will hamper your quality of life so much it will be a life of endless struggle.
Take for example sports contributions, working on your physical condition is just like preventative healthcare. Why should curing be a primary need but prevention be a secondary need? It does not make any sense. Not in the last place that the numbers presented are totally not reflecting actual prices.
Allowances
My issue with allowances is that their maximum utilization is based on somebody with a minimum wage. The minimum wage is 25% higher than my WAJONG. It would make sense that allowances for me would be 25% higher than the minimum wage but that's not the case, it's the same as anybody on a minimum wage. This means that I am losing out on 25% income potential per month which in numbers is about 3600 euros annually.
Affordability pinch
Since 1970 the Dutch government is on a economize WAJONG spree lowering the purchasing power thus creating an affordability crisis. In my case, I feel the affordability crisis very much with being unable to afford Dutch salaries or bigger projects like renovations. Therefore I rely heavily on online free & open-source resources to help me get through life.
A perfect example, I can't afford a business developer to help me out. The UWV does not want to provide me a stimulus grant because I am not eligible due to some stupid rules. So I had to go to something called micromentor to find the business developer I need.
It is not permitted to earn extra money
In 2021, they will have consolidated various WAJONGs into one, simplifying the process. Though I am a fan of simplifying the process, it has removed the possibility to earn up to 95% of the minimum wage, which is equivalent to about 200 euros extra per month. Instead, there is no barrier to how much you are allowed to earn, but you have to give back 75% to UWV. This means that for every 100 euros you earn extra, you can keep 25 euros. But over that 25 euros, you still have to pay taxes, meaning another 40% is gone, thus you are left with 15 euros.
In other words, assuming a net wage of about 15 euros is just below the median income, you would need to earn almost 100 euros per hour. And going much lower would make you work hourly under the minimum wage, so that would be illegal, let alone demoralizing.
Another example, if you earn the minimum wage of about 11 euros per hour, you would be left with about 1.60 euros per hour. Then working as a volunteer is even more rewarding because it can earn you up to about 4,50 euros per hour.
All I want to say is that the current system, though advertised as an improvement, is still broken and de-incentivized to try to earn a little on the side. But Robert, if you can earn, you do not need WAJONG, ' I hear you say. Well, this is untrue. The WAJONG provides financial stability and can't be substituted by the extra income some with a WAJONG might make on the side.
That might mean 500 euros in one month, but if the other 11 months are 0, then effectively it's not even 42 euros per month. Are we going to prosecute people that try to make their lives marginally better with such small amounts of marijuana? What bothers me is that I can't (and shouldn't) renounce my WAJONG for that one-off good-paying moment..
Because of this, I am forced to choose any of the following:
Do nothing
Try to find some side jobs that pay black
Try to find a regular job & renounce my WAJONG
'But finding a regular job sounds like a good plan Robert ' I hear what you say, and yes, I agree. It's not that I do not want it, but because I have no diplomas and any study will take me at least 4 years. No employer is going to wait that long. Furthermore, because of all the expenses I've incurred as a result of my disability, I can no longer afford to pay for a study. All the compensation that is available is either minimal and thus not helpful or I am not eligible.
Not in the last place, as a 'free spirit' working in a regular job where supervision rules over autonomy really will make me clash with my superiors. And then we still have to take into account all my handicaps as well. I will not get hired. That much is obvious.
So we have been talking about problems, but what are the solutions that would help me out? Well, it all started with having a higher income or lower fixed expenses (or both). In any case, anything that increases my purchasing power and thus allows me to afford more.
But also things like allowing me to earn extra without having a crippling tax would be really nice. Living for 10 years on 25% less than the minimum wage has already created a gap of more than €36,000. This is equivalent to 3 years of my WAJONG income. meaning that I have a long way to go before I even catch up with the minimum wage group.
In the meantime..
Living on the lowest income bracket per month is enough to survive on but not enough to live on. There is no room for growth or buffers. I would like to see the standards & norms be changed that growth and gaining buffers are an integral part of the lowest income brackets per month so over time all humans have buffers.