The number of young people receiving welfare benefits has risen again at the start of this year. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports that in the past quarter, an additional three thousand young people received welfare benefits, an increase of 7 percent compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
The total number of welfare recipients grew by 1 percent in the first quarter of this year. CBS registered 408,000 benefits, 4,000 more than a year earlier.
Young adults up to 27 years old are the fastest-growing group, with 41,500 recipients. This was already the case in 2024.
A welfare benefit is financial support from the municipality for people with an income that is too low to cover the cost of living.
CBS chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligen explains the increase among young people by short contracts, which are being cut more quickly by companies. “Young people often do not yet have a work history and therefore are not entitled to unemployment benefits. Moreover, they sometimes have just graduated and therefore end up in welfare more quickly.”
‘Young target group is the smallest and therefore grows the fastest’
According to labor economist Ronald Dekker of research agency TNO, the rapid growth among young people is also due to the relatively small size of this group. “There are fewer young people in the working population anyway,” he explains.
For other age groups, the absolute numbers are larger, but the percentage increase is smaller. “There is no reason for immediate concern,” says Dekker. The number of welfare benefits remained the same in the past quarter for people between 45 and 67 years of age.
Van Mulligen suspects that the labor market is slowly cooling down. “Yet the demand for personnel remains very high,” he emphasizes.
Dekker points to stricter rules for other benefits, such as the shorter unemployment duration and stricter requirements for a WIA benefit. “As a result, people are more likely to qualify for welfare benefits,” Dekker explains.
The number of men on welfare rose again this quarter, while the number of women remained stable. At the end of March, 180,000 men received welfare benefits, an increase of 4,000 on an annual basis. Van Mulligen thinks that women find work faster because they are on average more highly educated.