Dutch central government launched a business support program to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis focuses on the two most important arrangements, i.e., on wage supplementation and fixed cost supplementation due to income losses, covering the period March 2020-September 2021. The analysis reveals that priority was given to simple and generally applicable arrangements that could provide rapid financial support. Arrangements were designed for subsequent short periods mostly of three to six months, in order to enable adaptations as a result of experiences and turbulence in the changing economic conditions. Adaptations are in regard to target groups, the minimum loss in sales for receiving support and the amount of support related to an income loss. Accountability to parliament focused on the applicability of arrangements for specific groups, such as season sensitive businesses The accomplishment of the ultimate goals of avoiding bankruptcies and unemployment, as well as budgetary consequences, were also addressed, but it turned out to be difficult to establish causal links between impacts achieved and available resources of the business support arrangements.