In total 23 of the 150 members of the lower house of parliament have resigned since the March 2017 general election and many of them have claimed the special unemployment benefit for MPs, even though they quit voluntarily.

The total bill for the benefit, known as wachtgeld or waiting money in Dutch, runs to €400,000 so far, the Parool reported at the weekend.

In total, 12 of the 23 MPs to leave parliament early have benefited from the wachtgeld scheme. MPs earn some €115,000 a year and are entitled to 80% of their former salary for one year, followed by up to 26 more months at 70%.

Among those claiming the benefit are former D66 MP Alexander Pechtold, who left in October 2018 after resigning as party leader. According to the Parool, he claimed an estimated €90,000 before finding a new job as head of the Dutch driving licence authority CBR.

Mayor

Sybrand Buma, the former CDA leader is also thought to have claimed wachtgeld for three months before taking up the position of mayor of Leeuwarden. Marianne Thieme, former leader of the pro-animal PvdD, has not had a formal job since she stepped down voluntarily but declined to answer questions about the benefit, the Parool said.

Twente University professor Marcel Boogers told the paper it is important that MPs have a good financial safety net to protect them if they lose their jobs. However, claiming the benefit because they resign voluntarily is ‘a grey area’ which could be tightened up, he said.

Junior home affairs minister Raymond Knops said at the end of last year that the ruling could be in for an overhaul. That followed the row over top-up payments made to VVD parliamentary party leader Klaas Dijkhoff to match the salary he had earned while a minister in the previous government.