Police investigating fraud at two language schools in Amsterdam and Utrecht have seized €10,000 in cash in a series of raids.

The agency in Utrecht is suspected of registering non-existent students for the civic integration course, using forged signatures,

in order to claim extra grant money from the exams regulator Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO).

In Amsterdam teachers are believed to have obtained exam papers in advance and told students what answers to give, rather than teaching the whole course.

This week the government announced an overhaul of the integration procedure after admitting that the current system placed too heavy a burden on migrants to organise their own tuition.

Currently new migrants are given a €10,000 loan by the government to spend on integration classes, which is only repaid if they fail to pass their exams within three years of arriving.

However, a report last summer found that many applicants were unable to cope with the challenge of finding suitable classes in a crowded sector with little regulation.

Social affairs minister Wouter Koolmees has said municipalities will be given responsibility for integrating new migrants and budgets to buy in language tuition. They will also be expected to draw up individual integration plans for everyone who has to sit the exams.