Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher says he has no plans to change the way unemployment benefit is now calculated, even though some people will be hundreds of euros a month worse off.

Unemployment benefit (ww) is based on 70% of the claimant’s daily wage and that used to be calculated by dividing total salary by the number of days worked in the previous year. But from July 1, the daily wage has been worked out by dividing total salary by the total number of working days in a year, which is 261.

The CNV trade union asked the minister to change the new system, arguing that part-timers and people just starting out in the jobs market in particular will lose out.

However, a spokesman for the minister told news agency ANP there will be no revision. ‘Someone who worked for two months for a high salary should not get more benefits than someone who has worked for years for a low wage,’ he is quoted as saying.