Rent allowance 2020

In 2020, the rules for rent subsidy changed, allowing more households to apply for rent subsidy. You are eligible for rent subsidy if the rent is relatively high in relation to your income. If you want to receive rent subsidy, you can apply for it at the Belastingdienst (tax office). The amount of rent allowance is calculated on the basis of income, age, personal assets, composition of the household and the rent. In order to receive a rent subsidy, the rent (bare rent and a portion of the service costs) may not be too high or too low (between €232.65 and €737.14).

What has changed?

As of 1 January 2020, the Rent Allowance Act is in force. This means that the hard maximum income limits will be abolished. As a result, if your income increases, you will not immediately lose the entire rent allowance but it will be phased out. Up to and including 2019, if you exceeded the income limit, you had to pay back the entire rent allowance. Even if you had only one euro more income. This meant that with just a little more income, you were significantly worse off, because the entire rent allowance would fall away. As of this year, the amount of rent allowance is no longer only dependent on income, but also on the rent, composition of the household and age. The higher your income, the less rent allowance you will receive. As a result, if your income increases slightly, your rent allowance will not drop to zero at once. As a result of this new law, many more households with a rental property have the possibility to apply for rent allowance. Do you want to know whether you can get rent subsidy? Then fill in the rent allowance test. If you are entitled to a rent allowance, you can apply for it via the Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst) at My Allowances.