Challenges

Minimum income checker – Closed

City of Amsterdam

One in five people in Amsterdam lives in poverty. These people are, to a large extent, dependent on the state for their income. That income consists of a wide range of benefits for which people must apply. These benefits are subject to various rules, which mutually influence each other.

All income-related benefits have so many rules and exceptions that it is almost impossible for both the target group and care providers to have a clear view of all the mutual interdependencies. As a result, national or municipal benefits are sometimes requested, which influence each other negatively and inadvertently have an adverse impact on the applicant’s income. Also, it is often unclear for the applicant what is permitted in order to be eligible for benefits.

The issue:
Develop a tool that gives a care provider easy insight into the consequences of a change in income or lifestyle (e.g. moving in with a partner) for a person with minimum income.

Specific criteria that the startup should take into account in devising its bid:

  • A professional with a great deal of knowledge of the regulations is available for around four hours a week for a period of five months for advice and guidance during the testing of the situation checker with the target group;
  • The product has a modular structure, with a separate module per level of government. This makes the product easily adaptable for other municipalities;
  • The product can easily be updated to fit changes to regulations;
  • The product is not the same but similar to the apps offered by NIBUD/reken je recht and Bokkz.nl.

Specific supplementary (suitability) criteria/competencies to be met by employee(s) of the startup in order to bid on this issue, evidenced in the bid by means of a reference:

  • The startup speaks and reads Dutch at the tertiary level, since the startup will receive a large amount of information about roughly 20 national and municipal benefits and their conditions at the start of the project. The startup must be able to understand these benefits and their conditions.

Issued by: Armoedebestrijding, Armoederegisseur