Outline agreement 2024: for employees

Sectors expecting changes

On 16 May, the Dutch coalition parties presented their outline agreement. One of the stated objectives of the agreement, is to reduce the tax burden on employees. What consequences will the proposed plans have for you as an employee? How will your sector be effected when the changes are implemented? This will vary depending on the sector where you are active. Budgets in the softer sectors for instance, will be cut as a consequence of the coalition agreement, whilst more financial breathing space will be created in the agricultural and industrial sectors. In this article we have listed the sectors facing the most changes.

Youth work, education and science

Do you work in education, youth work or science? Then you may experience the consequences of austerity measures. Various subsidies and measures will be abolished by the new cabinet. The budget appendix to the outline agreement states the following:

Social service will no longer be subsidized;
Broad (or: heterogeneous) bridging classes will no longer be subsidized;
The School and Environment programme will be limited to 5% of previously eligible schools;
Adjustment of sector plans for higher education and science: This measure reverses the intensification of sector plans;
The Research and Science Fund will be reduced by 1.1 billion euros;
The additional resources made available in secondary education for the remuneration of teachers in Randstad regions ('Randstad job mix') will be abolished.

Agriculture/livestock farming

Various measures to benefit farmers have been included in the outline agreement. A new multi-year investment of 5 billion euros will be made in the agricultural sector, on top of the structural investment for agricultural nature management by farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture, which will soon be called Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN), will be in the hands of the sector-friendly BBB. Amongst the various measures, the following are expected to have the greatest impact on the agricultural sector:

Regarding the nitrogen policy, the critical deposition value will be replaced by an alternative that is more workable for farmers. The new approach to Nitrogen will be based on company-specific emissions and a threshold value will be introduced for the granting of permits.
In order to prevent a reduction in livestock farming, tackling the manure crisis is a priority for the new cabinet;
An annual budget of 500 million euros will be made available for strengthening agricultural nature management;
Red diesel will be reintroduced for agriculture by 2027;
An Accountable Substance Balance is being drawn up to give farmers and horticulturists more control again;
Good agricultural land will receive protected status;
The government wants to try to stop importing products that are not allowed to be produced in the Netherlands.

Healthcare

Do you work in healthcare? Then you may have to deal with policy changes and cutbacks in the coming years. The following proposed measures are aimed at the healthcare sector:

The additional resources made available for the Future-proof Labour Market Care and Welfare programme (TAZ) will be reversed as of 2026;
In non-contracted district nursing (Zvw), independent assessment will be introduced;
Acceleration and broadening (to other target groups) of the implementation and upscaling of existing digital care applications in district nursing. This should increase labour productivity.

Central government

The new government wants to make significant cuts in the civil service. Two restrictive measures will be implemented with regard to both FTEs and the wages of civil servants:

According to the outline agreement, the increase in FTEs to civil servants measured between 2018 and 2022 must be reduced to previous levels: The goal is to structurally reduce equipment expenditure by 22%.
From 1 January 2026, a baseline will apply to civil servants for a period of one year. With a base line in place, the wage growth of civil servants should be moderated.

Media, culture and recreation

Here too, cutbacks are being made, budget reductions for public broadcasting for example or by raising tax rates in the recreation, culture and the gambling sector. If you work in these sectors, you will notice that your belt is being tightened. Do you use the services offered in these sectors? Then you can expect price increases.

The funding of the NPO will be structurally reduced: Every year, the public broadcaster will receive 100 million euros less than the current budget.
The reduced VAT rate on accommodation will largely be abolished as of the year 2026. With the exception of campsites. The VAT rate for accommodation will go from 9% to 21%;
The reduced VAT rate for cultural goods and services will also be increased from 9% to 21%: The current low VAT rate will be abolished - with the exception of day recreation and cinemas - as of 2026;
The gambling tax will be increased from 30.5% to 37.8%.

Construction and infrastructure

As mentioned above, whereas softer sectors are facing cuts, the new government plans to invest in the harder sectors. The outline agreement promises a financial injection to stimulate home building:

By releasing a multi-year investment of 5 billion euros for the development of new housing sites;
There will also be a multi-year investment of 2.5 billion euros for opening up (new) housing sites and building infrastructure.

Energy

According to the outline agreement, substantial investments will be made in nuclear energy alongside cuts for climate control in the coming government period:

The government wants to scale up from 2 to 4 nuclear power plants in the Netherlands. The reserve for nuclear energy in the current national budget of 4.5 billion euros will be increased by 9.5 billion so that 14 billion euros will be available for a government contribution to the construction of four nuclear power plants up to and including 2035;
The budget for the Climate Fund will be reduced by 1.2 billion euros.

Students

Finally, a number of concrete changes for students have also been mentioned in the outline agreement. Do you have children who have recently graduated or are studying (or will start in the coming years)? The following measures could apply to them:

For full-time students who take more than a year longer to complete a bachelor's or master's degree, tuition fees will probably be significantly increased from the academic year '26-'27. Or more precisely: the institution where they study will receive € 3,000 less government funding. It is expected that this cut will be passed on to the study costs of long-term students;
The public transport allowance that Dutch students received when they studied abroad will be abolished;
For students who have studied during the social loan system - the so-called unlucky generation - a compensation budget of 1.4 billion euros will be made available.

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