Half the 355,000 people in the Netherlands who claim welfare benefits could work at least part time, junior social affairs minister Paul de Krom says in an interview with news agency ANP.

The minister is currently working on plans to reform the welfare benefit (bijstand) system which will be extended to cover people on youth handicap benefits and those who work in sheltered employment schemes.
‘I think everyone who can work should do so,’ De Krom said. ‘At the moment there are 135,000 jobs open in the Netherlands and 1.2 million people claiming benefits. Some of them can’t work, but some 500,000 of them can.’
De Krom’s plans, published earlier this year, involving fining claimants who don’t try to find a job and possibly introducing compulsory community service projects for long-term claimants.
Entitlement to welfare benefits will also be calculated on a household rather than an individual basis, so that the income of adult children will be taken into account. This aspect of the reforms has already been criticised by local councils (who administer welfare benefits) and the Council of State advisory body.
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