The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment (Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid – SZW) has indexed the payments and financial arrangements of SZW for the Dutch Caribbean. All arrangements and corresponding amounts have been published in the "Staatscourant" dated November 29th , 2011
Different amounts for each island
The choice has been made to use different amounts for the different islands, because the inflation rates for each island were very different. The CBS indicated an inflation of 5.9% for Bonaire, 6.6% for Saba and 11.2% for St. Eustatius. Here below will follow the most important arrangements and corresponding amounts.
1. General Old Age insurance (Algemene Ouderdomsverzekering – AOV), maximum benefit.
Bonaire (was $ 524,-), will be as of 1-1-2012 $ 555,–
Saba (was $ 524,-), will be as of 1-1-2012 $ 558,–
St. Eustatius (was $ 524,-), will be as of 1-1-2012 $ 582,–
Surcharge Saba (was $ 42,- ), will be as of 1-1-2012 $ 45,–
Surcharge St. Eustatius (was $ 10,- ), will be as of 1-1-2012 $ 12,–
(Saba and St. Eustatius have a different surcharge as of 10-10-2010)
2. General Widows and Orphans insurance (Algemene Weduwen- en Wezenverzekering – AWW)
All amounts (depending on the age and circumstances) will be indexed with the percentages as mentioned above as of 1-1-2012.
3. Social benefit (onderstand)
All amounts (for singles, married, with or without children and occupational disability) will be indexed with the percentages as mentioned above as of 1-1-2012. (This is also applicable for the surcharges.)
For the minimum payments this will mean:
Bonaire (was $ 80,–) will be as of 1-1-2012 $ 85,–
Saba (was $ 80,–) will be as of 1-1-2012 $ 86,–
St. Eustatius (was $ 80,–) will be as of 1-1-2012 $ 89,–