You live with a co-resident

A co-resident:

• is a person aged 27 or over who lives at the same address as you
• can be a friend or acquaintance, a child, brother, sister, or another relative. Your relationship with the co-resident is not relevant.

It makes no difference whether the co-resident actually contributes to the household costs. The co-resident’s income is not taken into account for your Anw benefit.

A person is not regarded as a co-resident if:

• you rent a room from them or you are a lodger in their house
• they rent a room from you or are a lodger in your house
• they are a student under 30 and they qualify for a student grant or loan

If you live with 1 or more co-residents, you will get a reduced Anw benefit. Your benefit will be based on 50% rather than 70% of the Dutch minimum wage.

If you stop living with any co-residents, your Anw benefit will be restored to the higher rate. It will then be based on 70% of the Dutch minimum wage.

Example

You share a house with your cousin aged 29. He has a catering job on an on-call basis and only occasionally helps pay for the shopping. He sometimes does odd jobs in the house.

Your cousin makes little or no contribution to the household. You are therefore not regarded as sharing a household with him. However, he does count as a co-resident because he is over 27. You will therefore get a reduced Anw benefit.