BNG offers municipalities a prepaid service: the Social Pass (Maatschappelijke Pas). This pass is used to pay living expenses to homeless people, debt assistance clients and refugees who temporarily do not have access to a current account. This enables social services and credit banks to provide financial assistance to these vulnerable groups.
The Social Pass is used out of social necessity to support BNG's relationships, enabling them to provide funds to vulnerable individuals. These are people who temporarily do not have access to a basic current account in accordance with the Basic Bank Account Covenant. The Basic Bank Account Covenant guarantees every citizen in the Netherlands a basic bank account.
Read more about the Basic Bank Account Covenant here.
The Social Card is a Debit Mastercard that cardholders can use to withdraw money from any payment terminal or cash machine in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Social services and credit banks can add or deduct funds from the card via the Card Management module in My BNG. Within the module, you can also view the card administration and, for example, block or unblock cards.
Personal spending facility for your client
More information can be found in the Card Management Manual.
Within the target group, we distinguish the following people:
Natural per whose payment account has been blocked by the bank (e.g. due to fraud) must always invoke the banking covenant and coordinate this with the account-holding bank. As a temporary measure, this service can be used to pay out living expenses.
The Social Card may only be used for business transactions for emergency and living expenses for the target groups described. Other expenditures are not permitted. The financial service is subject to strict regulations. Only under these conditions can we use this service for social purposes.
Contactless payments are integrated into the functionality of the Social Pass by default. This is not an optional feature.
A council decision is required for every private law transaction.
We prefer you to use a council decision. Sometimes a mandate decision is in force. This is a decision in which an administrative body, such as a municipality or province, authorises another administrative body or civil servant to take decisions or perform acts on behalf of that administrative body. It is often difficult to assess whether entering into the Social Pass agreement falls within the mandate. Please note that here too, the mandated party must take a decision. We also require an appointment decision and a copy of a valid ID of the mandated party.
Yes, the reference to the council decision is part of the SOK. The SOK is legally valid when the council decision number has been entered. You can upload both the council decision and the agreement together with the order form via My BNG.
The board decision is not subject to any specific format, but you must state that the board has decided to enter into the agreement and provide the reference number. In doing so, you also declare that the implementation procedure required by BNG is guaranteed within your organisation (see general provisions, Appendix 2).
The internal/external annual statement shows that your organisation has properly implemented the implementation procedure (see general provisions, Appendix 2) during the past period.
This concerns the responsibility for recording the personal data of the cardholder and the linked card. This personal data must be registered in accordance with GDPR regulations and must be recorded in the personal registration system. This registration system is maintained by an external supplier or recorded in an internal system. You can indicate this in the agreement under “Name of external processor” or “No use of a processor”. You should also enter the email address of the data privacy officer or department. This will enable a rapid response in the event of a data breach in accordance with the GDPR.
You record this personal data in your own administration. The Pass Module in BNG Payment Transactions is not suitable for this.
More information about implementing the Sanctions Act can be found on the following websites:
For now, the order form can only be signed on paper. You can print the form, sign it, scan it and then upload it via My BNG. Download the order form here.
The new contract, which takes effect on September 1st, is considered a replacement for the current contract. See also Article 4.11 of the Social Pass Cooperation Agreement. In connection with the transition from the old pass to the new pass, the current contract will remain in effect until December 1st 2023. As of 1 December, the contract and the old linked passes will be deactivated by BNG. From this date onwards, the passes will no longer be usable and the contract will therefore expire. The current agreement will be definitively terminated as of December 1st.
After receipt of the signed agreement and the order form, the passes will be delivered to you within three to five days.
You will need two accounts: a card account and a contra account. We explain them below:
Optionally, you can open a separate account for transaction costs. You can indicate this on the order form.
After submitting the signed agreement together with the board decision and the order form, the account number will be linked to your organisation. This account number can be added to the authorised users by two administrators in BNG Betalingsverkeer. If you do not have two administrators, you can do this via the PAF form.
Each active card is charged €1.25 per month after the first year. The charge is terminated as soon as the card is deactivated.
Both suppliers have been provided with the specifications by BNG.
You can use a SEPA payment file to have the top-up carried out automatically from the financial system. To do this, you must enter a specific description in the description field of the SEPA file.
The description field always starts with CARD NO followed by the number. For example: CARD NO 673192400vvvvvvvvvd.
If the description field is filled in this way, BNG will also automatically create a top-up record for the card. This will also be explained in the manual, which is expected in August or September.
The Flomut files are made available daily via a CSV file. You can download this file in the Card Module in BNG Payment Transactions.
No, the processes are strictly separate. First, you must devalue the card in the old environment. The balance will then be released to your bank account. You can top up the Social Card in real time in the new environment. These are therefore two separate actions.
No, the processes are strictly separate. First, you devalue the card. The balance is then released to the fixed contra account. You can then top up the new card in real time.
No, if you don’t remember the PIN code, a new card will have to be issued. The old card will first have to be devalued and then terminated or deactivated. You can then top up a new card in real time.