An application for benefits from general funds may affect the applicant’s residence permit. This could possibly result in the residence permit being withdrawn. When a non-Dutch resident submits an application, the municipality passes this on to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). This person can then determine whether the residence permit will be revoked. This even applies to EU citizens and persons with Swiss nationality living in the Netherlands. What is important here is whether the applicant lives permanently in the Netherlands, which is assumed from the moment he or she has legally resided in the Netherlands for five years.

There may therefore be far-reaching consequences for the applicant. The question has arisen whether foreign self-employed entrepreneurs, who are normally reported to the IND when applying for benefits, can submit an application for the Temporary Bridging Scheme for Self-Employed Entrepreneurs (Tozo) without consequences. This scheme offers a supplementary subsistence benefit to self-employed entrepreneurs, including self-employed persons, during the corona crisis.

State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment Van Ark has answered this. She wrote in her answer: “The municipality does not have to report to the IND people with a residence permit who are entitled to the Tozo scheme.”

In other words: where the general scheme may have consequences for the applicant, this does not apply to this special scheme. Every self-employed person who legally resides in the Netherlands can submit an application for this scheme, without any consequences.

The State Secretary added that the IND will act flexibly with regard to persons whose residence permit is expiring and will not apply for an extension. Normally, when a person still resides in the Netherlands after his or her residence permit has expired, the so-called ‘ overstay’ starts. This period has consequences for any new applications for residence permits. Persons who cannot return to their country of origin due to the current situation will not be charged this overstay.