Your income is not too high for rent benefit

The higher your income, the less rent benefit you receive. If your income is too high, you may not qualify for rent benefit at all.

Whether your income is too high depends on your rent, your age, and the composition of your household. To determine this, your means-tested income is used. This is roughly your gross income, but often slightly higher.

You can do a trial calculation (only available in Dutch) to check if you qualify for rent benefit.

The income of other people in your home usually counts

If you have a benefits partner or co-resident, their income also counts towards the rent benefit. The income of subletters (only available in Dutch) does not count. If you have children living at home with an income, part of their income is not taken into account.

Is your spouse or registered partner not registered at your address? In that case, their income does not count for the rent benefit, but it may count for other benefits.

Part of your income may not count

Some types of income do not always count towards the rent benefit. This includes, for example, back payments of wages or social security benefits from previous years. These are known as 'bijzonder inkomen' (special income).