The number of people receiving social assistance compared to a year earlier has been rising since the third quarter of 2023. Before that, the number of people with social assistance benefits declined for more than two years. However, fewer people receive social assistance than during the peak in early 2021.
Both the number of people up to 27 years old and the number of 27- to 45-year-olds receiving general social assistance is higher in the third quarter of 2025 than in the same quarter a year earlier. The number of young people receiving social assistance increased by 5.5 percent (to 41 thousand), the number of social assistance recipients aged 27 to 45 increased by 1.4 percent (to 138 thousand). The number of people between 45 years and the state pension age with social assistance remains stable at 228 thousand. This was comparable in previous quarters.
In the second quarter of 2025, 20.6 thousand people entered general social assistance, and 17.3 thousand people left social assistance, both 0.3 percent less than a year earlier. This is the eleventh consecutive quarter that more people enter social assistance than leave it.
This excludes those who leave social assistance because they reached the state pension age. In the second quarter of 2025, this was 1.5 thousand people. The inflow and outflow figures for the third quarter of 2025 are not yet available.
The number of young people entering general social assistance in the second quarter of this year was 6.1 thousand, 21.0 percent higher than in the same quarter of 2019. 2.4 thousand young people of Dutch origin entered social assistance, 7.1 percent more than in 2019. 3.3 thousand young people of non-European origin entered, 35.4 percent more. A small number of young people of European origin (excluding the Netherlands) also entered social assistance.
In the second quarter of 2025, 4.1 thousand young people left social assistance, 14.1 percent less than in the second quarter of 2019. The outflow of young people of Dutch origin was 1.8 thousand, 9.3 percent lower than in 2019. For young people of non-European origin, the outflow was 2.0 thousand, 19.7 percent lower. The outflow of young people of European (non-Dutch) origin is relatively small and stable.
There is an outflow peak in the third quarter, because young people often start studying in September and therefore often no longer qualify for general social assistance.
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