10.8.8.60 Exempt Payments - Agreement with the Netherlands

Exempt payments

Article 15 of the Agreement with the Netherlands allows for the concessional treatment of certain Netherlands' payments under the Australian income test.

Article 15 exempts the following payments from the Australian income test:

• payments of National Assistance (Algemene Bijstandswet) - ABW, and
• Netherlands' spouse supplementary allowance - AOW Toeslag if the person is living in the Netherlands or if the person lived in the Netherlands before moving to a third country or subsequent third country.

Article 20 of the Agreement exempts the following payments from the income test if the person is living in the Netherlands or if the person lived in the Netherlands before moving to a third country or subsequent third countries:

• survivor's payments under the General Surviving Relatives Act - ANW,
• child benefit under the general Child Benefits Act - AKW,
• disability payments under the Self-employed Person's Disablement Benefits Act - WAZ, and the Disablement Benefits Act - WAO,
• the Huursubsidie (rent subsidy),
• payment under the Supplementary Benefits Act - TW Toeslagenwet, and
• Health Care Allowance - Zorgtoeslag.

These payments are also exempt for autonomous Australian pensioners.

Article 16 of the Agreement exempts certain Netherlands' payments made under the State Assistance Scheme of the 1940-1945 Victims of Persecution (WUV). The payments to be exempted are:

• reimbursement payments for extra medical, nursing and immediately related expenses of a victim of persecution, and
• the special allowance covering the extra medical expenses a victim of persecution has, but which are beyond his or her capacity to meet, while maintaining a certain standard of living.

These WUV payments are exempt for all social security payments under the social security laws of Australia. WUV periodical benefit, an income substitution payment which is subject to a means test, is to be treated as income (4.3.6.40).