Shorter period on income support increases chance of coming off it

More than 300 thousand people in the Netherlands were claiming income support  at the end of 2005. One in ten of them came off the benefit in the course of 2006. The likelihood of coming off income support shows a clear decrease the longer claimants have been receiving it. In 2006, 22 percent of people who had been receiving the benefit for less than a year came off it. For claimants who had been on income support for longer than three years, this was only 8 percent.

People who started receiving income support more recently are also more likely to receive counselling in aid of finding (paid) work. In 2006 one quarter of people who had been registered for less than one year were received counselling. This is twice the share of income support claimants who had been on the benefit for more than three years.

Income support: claimants coming off the benefit and claimants receiving counselling, 2006¹⁾

¹⁾ Excluding people who were disabled on 31 December 2006.