Currently, everyone who receives unemployment benefits (WW) must apply four times every four weeks or undertake other activities, such as following training or courses. But according to outgoing Minister Karien van Gennip (Social Affairs), the ‘subject of discussion’ is whether that obligation actually works in its current form. By looking at ‘alternatives’, Van Gennip hopes to determine their precise effect.
The Council of Ministers therefore agreed on Wednesday to Van Gennip’s proposal, which gives the UWV implementation organization the legal space to set up such an experiment. The intention is for the UWV, which is responsible for unemployment benefits, to start this autumn.
Different groups
The experiment should last at least four years in total. Van Gennip wants more than a hundred thousand people to participate. They come in three different groups, all of which receive a different approach.
For some people, the current policy will continue to apply. They must therefore also comply with the job application obligation in the coming years as it is currently laid down. The second group, on the other hand, is completely relieved of the obligation. They must ‘look for work on their own initiative’. Enforcement will also be canceled for them.
The last group gets a kind of intermediate variant. They must put together a plan themselves to find a new job, make individual agreements about this and are then checked for this.
Effect of duty unclear
In the coming years, people will not be able to choose which approach they will receive; the groups are randomly assigned. However, it remains possible for everyone to receive support from the UWV in their search for work, including the group for whom the obligation no longer applies.
In practice, this will mean that the job application obligation will be abolished for tens of thousands of unemployed Dutch people in the coming years and that an alternative regime will apply to tens of thousands more. According to Van Gennip, the design is necessary because little research has been done into what the job application requirement actually does, meaning that ‘no firm statements’ can be made about its effect. Moreover, it is unclear what can be achieved with an alternative approach.
The biggest problem now is that it is difficult to check whether the activities someone undertakes to comply with the job application requirement actually increases the chance of getting a job, according to Van Gennip. It can also be ‘demotivating’ for people who are distanced from the labor market to have to keep applying for jobs without results. However, the minister does not want to do away with the obligation in advance, because she believes it could be ‘an incentive’ to accelerate the search for a job.
Tags: Cabinet starts major experiment unemployment benefit job application requirement
