Just one of the 14 Dutch members of the European parliament who lost their jobs or resigned last year has a new, full-time position, the NRC said on Monday.

Auke Zijlstra, who represented the anti-immigration PVV in Brussels, is now a full-time member of staff for new PVV European parliamentarian Hans Jansen. Two others – one PVV MEP and one Socialist – both had a guarantee from their former employer they could return to their old jobs.

MEPs who only served one five-year term in Brussels will no longer be able to claim unemployment benefit from next month. ‘I’m trying really hard to find a job but it is not simple,’ former Labour MEP Thijs Berman told the paper.

Some MEPs have part-time work as consultants while Corien Wortmann, who represented the CDA, is chairwoman of civil service pension scheme ABP three days a week.

Former MEPs are entitled to one month’s salary for every year they spent in Brussels, with a minimum of six months and maximum of 24.

Employer are ‘not exactly waiting for former politicians,’ Toine Manders, who represented both the VVD and 50Plus in Brussels, told the NRC.