Constitutional and conventional protection of social security in the Netherlands

The Dutch constitutional guarantees of social rights are very limited. It is only up to Parliament, and not to courts, to decide whether the guarantees of Article 20 have been infringed. These guarantees are very limited. They require ensuring a subsistence income, but this does not prevent the legislature from imposing conditions on claimants to undertake steps to provide for a living themselves. Such conditions can seriously influence the legal character of benefits. In Netherlands protection by international treaties can sometimes be invoke, provided that these rules are unconditional and clear enough. In practice this means that rules that are contrary to an equal treatment provision or prohibition of cost sharing are overruled.