Asset test exception for Dutch allowances

What is the asset test exception for Dutch allowances?

Some of your money can be excluded from the asset test on request. The Dutch call that money bijzonder vermogen, special capital.

Dienst Toeslagen, the Dutch allowances office, weighs your capital on 1 January. Above the limit for your allowance, the payments stop.

That is not always the end of it. Certain payments and accounts can stay out of that sum. You have to ask for it. And only the categories on the official list qualify.

The exception covers three of the Dutch allowances, the toeslagen: rent allowance (huurtoeslag), healthcare allowance (zorgtoeslag) and child budget (kindgebonden budget). Childcare allowance has no asset test at all.

Take Amara. She rents a flat and receives rent allowance. Last autumn a settlement landed in her account after an accident. €40,000 of it is smartengeld, the payment for pain and suffering. On 1 January her savings stood at €47,000, well over the rent allowance limit.

So the exception exists. It does not cover every euro on your account.

Which assets count as bijzonder vermogen?

Eleven categories of capital can stay out of the asset test. Dienst Toeslagen fixed that list for 2026.

Most of them make up for something you lost. Others are money an authority still owed you. The table below names each one.¹

Anything outside these eleven categories counts as ordinary capital. A gift, an inheritance or a lottery prize simply adds to your balance.

The list itself comes from article 9 of the Uitvoeringsregeling Awir, the implementing rules under the Dutch act on income-related allowances.

Amara's smartengeld sits in the second row of the table.

Whether that helps Amara depends on one number.

When does the asset test exception make a difference?

The exception only matters if your capital on 1 January is over your limit. Below that limit you keep the allowance anyway.

The limits differ per allowance. Rent allowance has by far the lowest limit, so a single payment can push you over it. Healthcare allowance and child budget sit far higher.

If you share the allowance with a partner, a higher limit applies. That partner is your toeslagpartner.

Only the balance on 1 January counts.² What your savings do over the rest of the year makes no difference to that year.

Do you hold savings or property outside the Netherlands? That capital can land in the same 1 January sum, so check it with us. Not sure whether you have a toeslagpartner? Ask us before you use the partner column. A co-resident is someone else living at your address who counts for rent allowance. A co-resident's own capital has a separate cap. It does not count toward your toeslagpartner limit.

Foreign savings and property count in the same 1 January sum. Whether a foreign payment fits the list depends on the scheme behind it.

Amara holds €47,000, so she stands above the rent allowance limit of €38,479. Her rent allowance stops.

Each allowance's own page sets out its limit in full. Our page about reporting a change to your allowances covers what to do when your capital changes.

These limits have nothing to do with the tax-free threshold in Box 3 (heffingsvrij vermogen). That is a different number for a different purpose, explained on our page about Box 3 assets.

Being on the list is only half of it.

How do you request the asset test exception?

You ask for it with the form Verzoek bijzonder vermogen toeslagen. Dienst Toeslagen sees a balance, not where the money came from.³

You name the payment or account you want left out. You also show what it is.

Proof matters here. A settlement letter, a court decision or a bank statement for a blocked account can all serve as proof. You request the exception per allowance year. That is the year the money sat in your account on 1 January.

Amara submits the form with her settlement letter. She asks for the €40,000 of smartengeld to stay out of the sum.

Those rules stay clear until two situations turn up. They are the two we get asked about most.

What about injury compensation and children's money?

The pain-and-suffering part of an injury settlement can stay out. The rest of that settlement follows a date rule.

Did the decision on your payment fall before 11 October 2010? Then you can ask for the whole amount to stay out. From that date on, only the smartengeld part qualifies.

Compensation for material damage works differently. Money for a damaged house, for example, counts as ordinary capital. Did one settlement cover both? Then only the smartengeld part can stay out.

Children's money follows its own logic. What your child owns normally counts as yours. A foster child's savings are a separate case: you can ask for those to stay out. The same goes for a blocked account your family cannot freely touch. Such an account often carries a BEM-clausule, a court condition that locks the money. You do have to show the money is out of reach.

The table below sets these situations side by side.¹

These rules only bite once you hold them against your own balance.

What does this mean for you?

Check what your savings on 1 January were actually made of. That one question decides whether a request makes sense.

Is a payment from the list sitting in that balance? Then a refusal need not be final. Submit the form for the year it applies to. Keep the letter or statement that shows where the money came from.

Amara's request leaves €7,000 of ordinary savings in the sum. That is under the €38,479 rent allowance limit for 2026, so her rent allowance can run again.

You also have to report changes to your income or household. We walk through that on our page about reporting a change to your allowances.

The same capital and income also shape your tax return. We look at both in one conversation. You can see how we handle a full return on our page about help with your Dutch tax return.