Dutch child benefit to Thailand ends on 1 January 2015
A number of expats and pensioners with children will have to tighten their belts next year. From 1 January 2015, the SVB will no longer transfer child benefit to Thailand.
On Tuesday 17 June 2014, the Senate passed the Revision of Export Restriction Child Benefits Act (WhEK). This is expected to come into effect on January 1, 2015. This means that the SVB will no longer pay child benefit to all treaty countries. There are no consequences for the EU/EEA countries or Switzerland.
In which treaty countries no more child benefit?
Does a child live in Argentina, Belize, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Hong Kong, Jordan, Macedonia, Panama, Paraquay, Thailand, Turkey or Uruguay? Then the SVB may no longer pay child benefit to new customers from 1 January 2015. If you already receive child benefit before 1 January 2015, a transitional period will apply until 1 July 2015. You will then still receive child benefit until 1 July 2015 at the latest as you are used to. After that, the child benefit will stop.
If you are faced with this change in the law, you will have already received information about this in July 2012 (or later if you later received child benefit). You will then receive a new letter from the SVB in the course of 2014, explaining exactly what this means for you.
This law does not yet apply to other treaty countries
The SVB will still pay child benefit to other countries with which the Netherlands has a treaty. But this will also change in the future. If these treaties are amended, the SVB will no longer be able to pay child benefit in that country.
Strange, I was always told that I could not get child benefit in Thailand.
Khun Jan 1 I was told the same by the SVB. SVB told me you are not entitled to that.
This is the purest discrimination I know, my child who lives in Thailand with a NL passport gets nothing and I live and work in NL, but a pool with a Polish child without a NL passport whose father or mother is not registered in NL gets the full whack, thanks first room.
@ Leon…..complain, complain. (Incidentally, it is not the 1st Chamber that submits laws, but the 2nd Chamber.)
Completely abolish child support! If you take a child, take care of it yourself and not let the state (= other taxpayers) take care of it!
A very short-sighted response. Child benefit should actually be doubled. The biggest problem in the west is ageing.
Who should take care of you when you are old and infirm? Right, the younger generation. And your AOW is also paid for by the young people (working people).
Child benefit was a measure from the past and was directly intended to support families (poor or non-poor). With -of course- the underlying intention of encouraging extra offspring…. the loss of life on the battlefield had to be replenished.
I support Kees in his opinion. I've always had to pay for other people's children as a single person and that's not a problem if you have a reasonable income. But a measure from the war needs to be revised or withdrawn and there are good reasons for this.
I personally believe that everyone should be allowed to enjoy so much income (through work, for example) that an allowance such as child benefit is no longer necessary (so it can be abolished).
In addition, having children has been regulated (limited) for several decades. People can, as it were, decide for themselves how many children they wish to have, also taking into account their own possibilities such as (the level of) income. This is also useful to prevent so many people walking around in this world that the earth can no longer feed people. I know more reasons to do birth control, but it's about that child benefit.
What is now certain (in view of the enormous unemployment and overpopulation) is that having (many) children is no longer a priority. Stimulation is really no longer necessary in this time....
Dear Jan, if you are over 65, I now also have to pay for you (AOW). And if you are younger and cannot work, I also have to pay for you (WAO). I have no problem with it, our social system is based on that.
Whether you should limit the export of child benefit abroad? There is something to be said for that. After all, someone chooses to live abroad. In addition, many expats do not pay taxes, so that compensates somewhat.
In itself a respectable thought (the one you express).
It could be that I paid for your parents, but that's not the point I want to make. I remain of the opinion that everyone should be able to organize his or her life in the way that he/she prefers. One wants children and the other wants a nice camera or a nice car. Man is infinite in his diversity.
One wish is subsidized (because there is a scheme) and the other may pay for his big wish himself. The Chinese 1-child policy has harrowing cases, but is basically the salvation of the Chinese people. The Chinese are not that crazy after all… We can still learn from them.
I am not in favor of rules with all kinds of exceptions. Everyone (every Dutch person) is in principle and also equal in principle. Our current Government is always looking to make exceptions for certain population groups, both in a positive and negative sense. I hate that ~ it's a violation of the rule of law. Everyone is equal before the law. Whether you live as a Dutchman in the Netherlands or elsewhere. The most convenient thing is to abolish child benefit, but that is not going to happen.
Peter the problem is the pay-as-you-go system. You have indeed paid disproportionately to AOW, but the floepress spent it right away. Sort of a pyramid scheme where the first in the system only got and the last if the system goes down the bottle. Thank you Drees and Romme
Singapore is also expected to see a strong aging population and therefore a stagnation of economic growth. Hence a baby bonus program: http://www.heybaby.sg/havingchildren/baby_bonus.html.
In Thailand, too, the population will age strongly in the next 20-30 years. An estimate shows that by 2030, one third of the Thai population will be over 60 years old. At present, the average number of children per fertile woman in Thailand is 1,78; in the Netherlands that number is 1,66.
Aging can be solved by technology and working longer. I am 60, as fit as a fiddle and expect to be able to earn my own living without any problems until I am 70.
Furthermore: If each next generation becomes larger in number than the previous one “because then the state pension can be paid”, we are doing it wrong -> overpopulation.
The biggest problem is therefore not aging (that – unfavorable ratio of young people to the elderly – is hopefully a temporary problem), but overpopulation.
Moderator: please don't chat.
Completely abolish child benefit for people who have an average income, including myself. Do it with 1600 net with a child in primary school. Children are a choice and inexpensive if you raise with common sense. Takes a lot of time and energy but little money. In addition to child benefit, we also receive a child budget and childcare allowance. Not much so can also be abolished except for minima. Fortunately, the aging argument does not give me gray hairs despite my 61 years. There is still a lot of untapped labor potential and working longer but fewer hours is not a punishment. Not everyone grows old and infirm and technology also offers solutions. We are redistributing too much in the Netherlands. Each party must satisfy its voters financially. Short-term thinking just like the consumption of gas revenues until now. Reading Kees' reaction below excels in short-sightedness. As a single person, he does not want to contribute, but was once a child for whom his parents received child benefit.
Completely agree with you. Have fun in bed and others pay for the consequences. Abolish that trade, but then for everyone and in every country. Child benefit is a relic from the time when the Netherlands still went to work by bicycle to the factory. Now 25 year olds drive to their day job in a Mercedes 300 CDI. Ridiculous.
Moroccans receive Dutch child benefit in their country for children of whom the SVB does not even know whether they were actually born.
Abolish child benefit but also for everyone, or after the 2nd child I can live with that. and am working on a call where I will start proceedings at the European Court. As a Dutchman living in Thailand, I do not receive child benefit, but my expensive kids cost at least 2000 euros per month. Int. school, piano, guitar dance, football extra lessons, etc. Have paid millions in taxes and now piss everywhere outside the pot, This is pure discrimination and unjust arbitrariness and in violation of the constitution and the basic right of freedom of choice and residence. procedures won at the European Court, including last year for our compatriots who were suddenly cut here by 2%. An initiative by Henk Kamp to which he has been called back. I have placed an appeal next Saturday on my Dutch page in Pattaya People, where I need 50 compatriots to start a successful procedure for child benefit in Thailand. I don't know what kind of story this is from the SVB, but my applications have already been Rejected 100 times, because this has been changed from 2 according to the SVB. In these proceedings I demand child benefit with retroactive effect, plus the legal interest. A Moroccan who goes back to Morocco with his children does receive child benefit, and our compatriots here do not, is pure arbitrariness, discrimination and too foolish for words.
I read that those children are very spoiled with costs of 2000 euros per month, immediately suppress them
that trade., spoiled brats !!!
With children, study and raising it will come out later. Keep it short, poor school, well, you'll find out later. This is still not too bad. Mine, 15 years ago, 15000 pounds only boarding school in the UK each, then pocket money, a ticket 3 times a year, extra activities and stuff. Now project managers, Advokaat. What do you want, create boxes fillers?
Moderator: Please keep the discussion to Thailand.
I don't know the criteria to get child benefit in Thailand. When I settled permanently in Thailand in 2008, my child benefit (the Netherlands) was stopped and the SVB informed me that I am not entitled to this in Thailand, so I am surprised to read that there is an arrangement for obtaining child benefit in Thailand. Thailand. I am therefore interested in the procedure that Colin de Jong wants to start and would like to get in touch with him.
A few responders have already reported it, indeed it is not the case whether the child benefit should continue to exist or should be abolished.
Child benefit was created for two things, namely:
1 Keep wages low
2 To compensate people with children to be able to support children.
Abolition of child benefit would certainly be fine, provided everyone gets the same salary or whatever.
But I don't see that happening.
The fact is that the Dutch government is busy creating legal inequality with many measures.
And there is only one answer to that.
Namely, the word scandalous.
If you, as a Dutch citizen, decide to live abroad, hide away.
You're an instant target for any political idiot.
Moderator: too many errors in the text and therefore unreadable.
I think it's a great idea to abolish child benefit. But for everyone. If a 60-year-old grandfather wants to have another baby with his 25-year-old Thai wife, I do not think that the Dutch tax payer should pay for it.
It doesn't seem to me that a father's age should be a criterion for child support.
Nor is the age difference between men and women.
I used to have a choice with my child benefit: I lived in the Netherlands, worked in Germany. Despite the tax-technical disadvantages (no interest deduction), I did have a choice here: I received supplements there where the child benefit was highest. So it was a long time that I was paid the higher difference in the Netherlands and when the child benefit was higher in Germany, I was paid a part more there. Mind you: I didn't get the full blow from both countries. In one country the maximum paid there and in the other the difference to the highest there. Nice case!
But now I live in Thailand. I have no children here. And even if I had children here, I would not be able to demand child benefit from the Netherlands. It is, as described earlier, intended to animate people and still bring children into the world. IN THE NETHERLANDS. The Dutch economy will not benefit much if more children are born in Thailand. So that doesn't have to be "rewarded".
In the EC it is different again… the economy does benefit from that.
We are a very small group in Thailand that has left the Netherlands for elsewhere. We are here blathering as if we are the only ones who no longer live in the Netherlands.
Of course you have the right to live where you want and I am very happy that I can still get my money deposited in a bank to be able to do this. But let's be reasonable.
If I had children here, I would also like to use child benefit…. but don't cry if it doesn't come anymore.
It is the story from the booklet “Who moved my cheese”… who moved my cheese. In which two mice have been living in a maze for a long time and always find a piece of cheese in the same spot. Until one day no more cheese comes. One mouse goes berserk and the other reviews the situation. When it turns out that no more cheese will come in the following days, the smarter mouse goes looking and after a long search he finds cheese again. The other who was angry because "his" cheese didn't come anymore, stayed at home grumbling and eventually died of starvation. After all, he was “entitled” to the cheese without doing anything for it. He had always had cheese. The moral of the story? I do not know. You just have to do something to be "right".
So if you want to continue to receive child benefit…. maybe it will help to go back to the Netherlands? With your kids? Or will you stay here and grumble, just like that one mouse?
When my children were still small, I received child benefit during my stay in NL, but as soon as I left for good again for TH, I no longer received child benefit, because, according to the SVB, "You no longer have any ties with NL". SVB (asked several times) whether Moroccans with Moroccan children and living in Morocco had this. Never had an answer.
I do not understand this article, child benefit has never been transferred to Thailand, how did the writer come to that? Before the year 2000, you also did not receive child benefit if your children lived abroad and you yourself lived in the Netherlands.
It is ultimately political symbolism and window dressing. In the past I was told that about 450 children live in Thailand with Dutch child benefit. Then it was about 30.000 euros per month that the Dutch government is now saving. Not so long ago, child benefit was set at 40 percent, so a monthly total of 12000 euros. Refueling a Dutch helicopter in Mali already costs more, so to speak.
My daughter is now four years old. After the birth, I applied for child benefit, at the time still registered in the Netherlands and fiscally obliged. The application was rejected because, according to the SVB, I spent too much time in Thailand and too little in the Netherlands. Compatriots who stay in their own country often enough did receive child benefit for their child living in Thailand.
This rule is now being abolished and that now saves 24 euros per child per month, because the original 60 euros have already been reduced by 60 percent because of the lower costs for children here.
The Dutch government is trying to scrape money from everywhere to fill the national gaps. Unfortunately, there is no insight into the size of the pot of children's gold.
Moderator: please don't chat.
I don't want to send my kids to a Thai school, because everyone knows how low this education is. If you really love your kids then you are morally obligated to give them a good education. I have the opportunity to do this, because had to interrupt my university studies due to money problems. Later I studied law and economics next to my work at free and evening university, but this was very hard when you worked hard all day. A good education usually pays off, especially in the land of smile. A good and responsible father gives his kids a good education. A little help from the government is welcome because Thailand has become very expensive. Child benefit to Morocco and not to Thailand for the Dutch is crooked and the umpteenth unlawful arbitrariness of our government. Equal monks, equal hoods, because this is pure discrimination against our government. High time for a business cabinet, because billions are being thrown over the bar. I now have about 20 compatriots who are in solidarity with me to start proceedings at the European Court. Who follows, because with this measure the government is in violation of the basic right of freedom and residence.
On the one hand, always criticize the Netherlands and everything related to it, but from that country you still make a financial contribution to the costs for your children in Thailand – isn't that a bit of a squeeze?
Willing and knowing be able to leave the Netherlands in complete freedom to live in Thailand and also often comment on this blog about anything that has anything to do with the Netherlands.
That is allowed, because freedom of expression is one of the fundamental basic rights, as you will undoubtedly know, which no one can ever take away from you, but please be so consistent that you do not subsequently want to use a financial contribution from the Netherlands for the costs of your children in Thailand.
Needless to say, I certainly do not want to follow your solidarity in starting proceedings at the European Court, while it is not even my habit to comb through everything that has to do with the Netherlands. Even if that habit would be my own, my pride would still be the overlying value, far above that of applying for or obtaining child benefit from that 'discriminatory' Netherlands!
Colin de Jong, you certainly have your basic right of freedom and residence. The Dutch government will not prevent you from going to Thailand, but you must accept that you will no longer be eligible for all kinds of subsidies.
I already had no mortgage interest deduction when I worked in Germany and lived in the Netherlands at the time. And now you want (please read some articles of your predecessors) to be entitled to child benefit in Thailand?? Subsidies, including child benefit, are used to help people in the Netherlands, so that the Dutch economy is ultimately supported further. To what extent do you support those, if you let your children grow up in Thailand and of which it is not certain that they will later leave for the Netherlands to contribute to the Dutch economy there, dutifully as they will undoubtedly be?
That mistakes are made and the wrong people receive benefits is a normal phenomenon and as long as something can be done about it, there is not much going on.