Frequently asked questions about holiday allowance

Your holiday allowance will be paid together with your AOW pension in May. At what time the money will be credited to your account depends on your bank. If the payment has not been made yet, check your account later in the day.

Holiday allowance can accrue for 12 months, from May to April the following year. Holiday allowance automatically accrues from the start date of your AOW pension. If your AOW pension started in June or after, your holiday allowance will cover less than 12 months, and the amount payable will be lower.

No. The AOW scheme is different. You build up a fixed amount each month. This is the gross amount. It is based on the amount of holiday allowance you would get with the minimum wage.

The net amount of your holiday allowance depends on your personal situation, for example if you have a partner and how much income you receive. Deductions will be made for tax and/or national insurance contributions and health insurance contributions (Zvw contributions). You can find the net amount of your holiday allowance under ‘betaaloverzicht’ (payment summary) in My SVB.

Perhaps you have not yet been receiving AOW pension for a whole year, and your partner has, or vice versa. In that case, one of you has built up less holiday allowance. If you lived and worked outside the Netherlands in the past, you will have built up less AOW pension, and your holiday allowance will also be less. 

If only the net amount is different, a different amount in tax and national insurance contributions was deducted. 

If you have not been receiving AOW pension for a whole year, your holiday allowance will cover less than 12 months. This means that your holiday allowance will have accrued from the starting month of your AOW pension until April. 

If your pension has been been attached, all or part of your holiday allowance is paid to your creditor or deducted for recovery of an overpayment. In that case, you will have received a letter about it.