Can I claim Bbz if my existing business earns too little?
What would you like help with?
Detailed explanation, checklist and sources
If your existing Dutch business has temporary financial problems and you want to continue, ask your home municipality about Bbz. Viability, business hours and alternative finance matter. Living-cost support normally starts as a loan, not a guaranteed grant.
On this page
- Identify the help needed
- Have viability and hours assessed
- Prepare business and household details
- Apply through your home municipality
- Understand the loan and reconciliation
- Check duration and next steps
- Check business capital and objections
- Can I assume Bbz will not need repaying?
- Documents to prepare
- Sources
1. Identify the help needed
Dutch Bbz distinguishes support for everyday living costs from business capital, for example for an essential investment. This page concerns an existing business you intend to continue. Start-ups, businesses closing down and certain older self-employed people have separate conditions; do not assume this route covers them.
2. Have viability and hours assessed
After support, the business must be viable and, together with other income, provide enough for the business and household. General guidance requires at least 1,225 business hours a year and no available bank or guarantee-fund support. If your partner works in the business, ask about the applicable combined-hours assessment.
Rijksoverheid · Bbz voor een bestaand bedrijf ↗
Gemeente Haarlem · Plaatselijk Bbz-voorbeeld en voorbereiding ↗
3. Prepare business and household details
Collect recent accounts, tax returns, KVK details, housing costs and income details for you and your partner. Explain the shortfall and your recovery plan. Ask the municipality which periods and documents are required. Financial records belong only in the designated secure application channel, not a public chat.
Gemeente Haarlem · Plaatselijk Bbz-voorbeeld en voorbereiding ↗
4. Apply through your home municipality
Contact the business desk of the municipality where you live or its designated regional service. Ask when and through which form to apply. An introductory conversation or Bbz check is not an award. Keep the application receipt; our local preparation does not send any information or application.
Rijksoverheid · Bbz voor een bestaand bedrijf ↗
Rijksoverheid · Verschillende Bbz-situaties ↗
Gemeente Haarlem · Plaatselijk Bbz-voorbeeld en voorbereiding ↗
5. Understand the loan and reconciliation
Living-cost assistance normally begins as an interest-free loan. The municipality later uses actual annual income to decide what you must repay or receive additionally. Assets can affect the form of assistance; business capital is assessed separately. Do not assume in advance that the money will become a grant.
Rijksoverheid · Bbz voor een bestaand bedrijf ↗
Gemeente Haarlem · Plaatselijk Bbz-voorbeeld en voorbereiding ↗
6. Check duration and next steps
For this established-business route, Rijksoverheid describes a maximum of twelve months, sometimes extendable by up to twenty-four months. Extension is not automatic. Check the decision, updates and annual reconciliation. Use our own help-request route for uncertainty or an approaching objection deadline; it does not lodge an objection.
7. Check business capital and objections
For an established business, Rijksoverheid lists a 2026 maximum of € 261,048 interest-bearing business capital, repayable within ten years. A grant is at most € 13,052 with equity below € 251,233 and income persistently below social-assistance level. This capital grant cannot be combined with the interest-bearing capital loan. These are limits and conditions, not a guaranteed award. Living-cost support has separate rules; business-linked assets are disregarded there according to the general Bbz guidance. Ask the municipality for the specific calculation. Object to its Bbz decision within six weeks; the stated court-appeal route follows.
Can I assume Bbz will not need repaying?
No. Living-cost assistance normally starts as an interest-free loan. The municipality later determines what must be repaid or supplemented. Business capital has a separate assessment.
Documents to prepare
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Living costs or business capital
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For each event, note the date, what happened and where the evidence is kept. Example: 3 October — letter received — correspondence folder.
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After your conversation
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- Living costs or business capital
- Business hours and working partner
- Accounts and tax return
- Household income, assets and housing costs
- Other finance and recovery plan
- Application receipt, decision and annual assessment
Contact with a lawyer
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View the current application processSources
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Rijksoverheid · Bbz voor een bestaand bedrijf ↗Rijksoverheid · Verschillende Bbz-situaties ↗Gemeente Haarlem · Plaatselijk Bbz-voorbeeld en voorbereiding ↗Rijksoverheid · Bedrijfskapitaal2026 ↗Sources may be in Dutch. General information about Dutch law, not individual legal advice.