The number of people claiming welfare benefits continues to rise, despite improvements in the jobs market, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday.

Some 434,000 people were claiming welfare at the end of June, up 8,000 on the previous quarter.

Welfare (bijstand) claims usually go down some time after the jobs market begins to recover, the CBS said. People are entitled to welfare benefits once they have used up their entitlement to unemployment benefit (ww) and provided they have little in the way of assets.

The government is reducing the maximum ww claim period from three to two years.