UWV is given room to experiment with job application requirements for unemployment benefits employees

Minister Karin Van Gennep (Social Affairs and Employment) has UWV experience with possible alternatives to the work application obligation for people on unemployment benefits (WW).

This was stated by the Minister after the Cabinet meeting.

Anyone receiving unemployment benefits is now required to do four “application activities” every four weeks. This may include writing an (open) application letter, conducting an interview or following a training course. Whether this really helps people find work faster is up for debate. Little research has been done on this matter.

Van Gennip therefore gives UWV legal scope to deviate from the job application obligation for at least four years, so that other models can also be tried in practice. “Through this experiment, we can test what actually works,” the minister says. “In this way we provide the basis for an effective policy to help unemployed workers return to work.”

The goal is for more than 100,000 unemployment benefit recipients to participate in the trial. For some of them, the obligation to apply for jobs remains as it is now, and a second group may search for work on their own, without the obligation to apply and implement the application, and individual agreements are concluded with a third group.