Trials with the new system for claiming unemployment benefit (ww) have shown 99% of people fill in the forms wrongly, Trouw reports on Friday.

From July 1, everyone who loses their job and claims ww benefits will have to fill in a form each month, stating whether they have earned any money. The form has to be completed before benefits are paid out.

Some people now fear there will be chaos when the new system goes live, Trouw says. Some €5m has been spent on information campaigns and hundreds of new staff have been taken on to ensure the change-over is smooth.

‘During the test phase we discovered no one knows what their sv-loon is,’ UWV manager Fred Paling told the paper. The sv-loon is the wage which is liable for social security premiums but is rarely given that name on pay slips.

Complicated

In some cases, claimants will have to make complicated calculations and will need to know their holiday pay entitlements and other bonuses to calculate their sv-loon.

‘We are assuming everyone will get it wrong in the first month,’ Paling said.

The new system also means people will be paid six weeks after making a claim. Those who don’t send in their earnings report within a month will not get any money.

Everyone who becomes redundant from July 1 has to fill in the form, regardless of whether or not they have any form of outside income.