Strip the STAP budget and free childcare has been deferred
For example, it is already clear that the STAP budget will be eliminated and that (almost) free childcare will not be available until 2027, rather than 2025. The postponement of free childcare is expected to net the state 3 billion euros once, the eliminated STAP budget saves around 200 million a year. On the other hand, the surcharges will be loose.
These cuts are necessary because the government is structurally short of €3 billion. ‘There is now a structural gap in the budget and this needs to be structurally covered. Interest rates are rising, as are budget deficits. We have to make painful choices again. The free money is gone,’ says Beekman. There have also been accidental setbacks of several billion in recent years.
Cheese slicer method
Since Wednesday, the term “cheese slicing method” has become commonplace in The Hague. “The thickest plates come from the departments with the biggest budgets,” Beekman says. ‘Then you quickly end up at Public Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS). There was talk of increasing the deductible, but ChristenUnie couldn’t really agree. So it won’t happen.’
It is not yet clear what will happen to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. ‘A lot has transpired from The Hague, but the doors of VWS have been closed since the end of the coronavirus. We don’t know exactly what they’re up to.”
Unlike VWS, the doors of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor are open. That’s where the cuts to the STAP budget and child care come from. Incidentally, not all ministries get a cheese slicer on them. “The advocacy and poverty reduction portfolio will be spared,” Beekman says.
“It’s going to be a pretty tricky puzzle.”
The spring memorandum to be sent to the House of Representatives today will only contain plans on the expenditure side of the budget. The income side will be spared for the time being. ‘Kaag will play by the budget rules: if you’re short on spending, you have to sort it out on the spending side as well. Nothing is done on the revenue side, at least until the autumn. We already know that some coalition parties want to look more heavily at the taxation of capital and SMEs. It will be a rather complicated puzzle.’