Healthcare benefit 2024 and your health insurance (2024)

In 2024, you are entitled the healthcare benefit if your income as a single person is less than € 38.520. Additionally, your capital may not be higher than €127.582.

Are you married or in a civil partnership? Or do you have a tax or fiscal partner for other reasons? Then your combined income should be less than €127.582 per year and combined capital less than € 161.329. Examples of what is considered as capital includes savings, shares, a holiday house in the Netherlands or abroad.

Furthermore, you are only eligible for a healthcare benefit if:

• You are 18 years or older. From this age, you have your own insurance policy.
• You have Dutch health insurance.
• You have the Dutch nationality or a residence permit. This also applies to your tax partner.

Good to know: not everyone is entitled to the healthcare benefit. It depends on your income. On the Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) website you can see how much healthcare benefit you are entitled to according to your income.

To calculate your benefit, the Tax Administration uses your annual income (also known as means-tested income). What is this? It is your (combined) gross income over an entire year for the Tax Administration minus any deductions.

The most common deductions are:

• Mortgage interest
• Cost of financing your first home
• Penalty interest when refinancing a mortgage
• Alimony
• Study costs
• Work commuting expenses

Deductions reduce your taxable income for the Tax Administration. For example, a high salary can sometimes still entitle you to the healthcare benefit for a year. Every year, you can still apply for the healthcare benefit until September 1 with retroactive effect for the previous year.

The healthcare benefit is paid out on the 20th, 21st or 22nd of each month. The exact day varies from month to month. In this overview, you can see the payment days in 2023 and 2024.

You must apply for the healthcare benefit from the Tax Administration yourself. This is not automatic, nor does your health insurer do it for you. On the Tax Administration website, you can log in to ‘Mijn Toeslagen’. You need your DigiD to do that. You then go through several steps to apply for the benefit.

Note: applying for the healthcare benefit retroactively can be done until 1 September.

Still want to apply for the healthcare benefit for last year? This is possible until 1 September of the following year. So for the 2023 healthcare benefit, you can still apply until 1 September 2024.

Providing your exact income to the Tax Administration

When applying for the healthcare benefit, the Tax Administration asks for your annual income. It is important that you estimate this as precisely as possible. If by the end of the year your income was more than specified, you will have to repay the excess healthcare benefit you received.

The opposite also applies; if your income is less than you specified, you will receive the additional healthcare benefit you are entitled to. But it is important that you keep a close eye on this yourself.

Has your income or that of your benefits partner changed? If so, you must submit these changes to the Tax Administration. There are several reasons why your annual income may change:

• ​the size of your mortgage (and thus the amount of interest) changes.
• you incur more or less specific healthcare expenses that you report on your tax return.
• you have more or less deductions that you report on your tax return

Did you receive more healthcare benefit than you are entitled to? If so, the Tax Administration first tries to offset this against the remaining payments. This means they withhold (part of) the healthcare benefit you have yet to receive. Is this not possible? Then you'll receive a payment slip. You must pay the excess amount back within 6 weeks. What happens with a late payment? Interest is added.

Are you unable to pay back the amount in one lump sum? Then you can make repayment arrangements with the Tax Administration.

Are you going to earn too much for healthcare benefit? Then notify the Tax Administration of your new income within 4 weeks. This avoids the possibility that you may receive too much healthcare benefit and have to pay it back the following year. It can very quickly add up to several hundred euros.

The Tax Administration checks the value of your capital annually on January 1. Is your capital then too high? Then stop your healthcare benefit yourself to avoid having to repay.