Go directly to the most important information of this page
Contact

Nursing home

You naturally hope it will never come to that, but it may be that you or your partner needs to move into a nursing home at some point. A life event of this type can affect the amount of your state retirement pension (AOW). This depends on your situation:

1. You are married or in a registered partnership

If you are married or in a registered partnership and either you or your partner resides in a nursing home or assisted living accommodation for a long period, then your state retirement pension will continue to be 50% of the minimum wage. We call this a married person’s pension. You and your partner can opt to receive a higher state retirement pension: 70% of the minimum wage. We call this a single person’s pension.

Please note: opting for a single person’s pension may seem financially advantageous because you and your partner will then receive a higher state retirement pension. However, in most cases this is not in fact the best option. This is because you will usually end up paying more tax or receiving a smaller care allowance or less housing benefit. Your personal contribution under the Long-term Care Act (Wlz) or Social Support Act (Wmo) may also be substantially higher.

2. You have a partner but are not married

If you have a partner but you are not married and either you or your partner resides in a nursing home or assisted living accommodation, you will no longer receive a married person’s pension but a single person’s pension instead. You can opt to continue receiving the married person’s pension but there are conditions attached to this. To learn more about these please consult the SVB (Social Insurance Bank) website.

Do you need help on which option to choose? You will find more detailed information on the consequences of living in a nursing home on the SVB website. The website also tells you which organisations you can turn to for arranging a married or single person’s pension.