Gov't wants municipalities to better enforce language requirement for welfare benefits
The Dutch government wants municipalities to more strictly enforce the language requirement for welfare benefits. Minister Thierry Aartsen of Work and Participation is tightening the rules around this requirement in order to tackle municipalities that are slacking in this duty, sources told the Telegraaf.
The Netherlands requires people to be proficient in Dutch to qualify for full social assistance benefits. “Sufficient command of the Dutch language is necessary to obtain, accept, and retain a job. If your language level is insufficient, you must make an effort to improve it. If you do not, your social assistance benefit will be reduced,” the government website states about this requirement.
According to the Telegraaf, VVD Minister Aartsen feels that some municipalities are not sufficiently applying this requirement. He sent municipalities a stern warning, instructing them to strictly verify whether welfare recipients have sufficient proficiency in the Dutch language, and cut their benefits if they don’t.
Aartsen is threatening an “escalation ladder” if municipalities fail to enforce the language requirement, the newspaper’s sources said. Municipalities will first receive a “directive” urging them to enforce the rules. If they still fail to do so, Aartsen could cut their funding from the central government to pay benefits.
The Jetten I Cabinet is looking for ways to save on social assistance as their plans for cutting the unemployment (WW) and disability (WIA) benefits are meeting with fierce resistance from trade unions and coalition parties.
The government has already scrapped plans to increase the state pension age for the AOW benefit more rapidly and scaled down the WW and WIA cuts, but trade unions are still threatening nationwide strikes. The minority Cabinet also needs support from the opposition to pass these plans through parliament and the Senate, and that is also still lacking.
