Bijstand. Dutch basic social security benefits. What to avoid.

First of all, do your best to avoid them, period. Why? Because nowadays, they may be the fastest road into financial difficulties and other types of misery. Because one civil servant gets to determine when your bijstand gets paid and whether, and also what the amount will be.

1. Any crowdfunding donations for expenses like dental treatments will count as income! These amounts will be subtracted from your benefits. Unfortunately, however, you may not be able to afford dental treatment for adults if you are on these benefits. Solution: Let a friend or relative do any crowdfunding and pay for your treatment.
2. If you do any online trading and you for example transfer out 300 euro one week because your margin is low and transfer it back a week later, this will likely count as 300 euro income and will be subtracted from your benefits. To some degree, this depends on who’s handling your benefits. (This may also hold for transfers to and from your PayPal account.) You can try to dispute this on the basis of an overview of your actual trades. However, trading gains count as income whereas trading losses are ignored. This has been taken to court, without success.
3. Don’t count on your benefits! Staff can withhold your benefits payments at any time and doesn’t need to have a good reason and doesn’t need to inform you of this in advance. If you ask why your benefits payment hasn’t come in that month and when you can expect the payment, you may have to be persistent and drag answers out of your civil servant.