Utrecht turns experiment with relaxed welfare rules for young people into policy

Utrecht is scrapping stricter welfare rules for young people. Last year, the municipality started experimenting with a more flexible social assistance regime for people under 27 and is now making that regime policy, the Volkskrant reports.

Under the Participation Act, young people have to comply with stricter requirements for social assistance than people over the age of 27. For example, they must first independently look for work for at least four weeks and aren’t allowed to earn extra money if they receive welfare.

Last year, Utrecht temporarily lifted those requirements to help young people better. Despite the furious reaction from the national government, the city now decided to make the change permanent, alderman Linda Voortman (GroenLinks, Work and Income) told the newspaper.

According to Voortman, the more flexible rules for social assistance prevents young people from getting into debt and losing confidence in the government. “We also see that the expected negative effects have not materialized,” Voortman said. “The idea was that letting go of the waiting time would have a pull-on effect, and young people would apply for assistance en masse when they don’t actually need it. But we don’t have that impression.”

The number of young people applying for social assistance in Utrecht increased by 15 percent last year, compared to a national average of 4 percent. Voortman doesn’t see that as proof that young people are abusing the system but rather that Utrecht is reaching young people in need better than other municipalities.

Since municipalities became responsible for social assistance in 2015, there have been major differences in how they interpret this duty, often depending on how left- or right-wing the city council is. Over the past three years, several municipalities have, like Utrecht, decided to ignore the Participation Act rules and make welfare easier for their citizens. For example, welfare recipients in Tilburg are allowed to live together without their benefits getting cut. And Amsterdam is allowing residents to earn extra money on top of their social assistance.