Tackling the hard core of youth unemployment

• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Responses

The Court of Audit has investigated the approach taken to tackle youth unemployment. The audit concentrated on unemployed young people without basic qualifications who were registered with the Centre for Work and Income (CWI) and were in a very weak position in the labour market. These young people often have complex problems in the form of debts, problems at home and psychological problems. They are in danger of missing the boat. This leads to the social exclusion of the young people themselves and high costs to society, for example if young people are dependent on benefit payments for many years, cause a nuisance or commit crime. It is therefore of great importance that these young people return to school or find a job as quickly as possible.

Conclusions

Young people with multiple problems often do not receive the assistance they need to find a job or return to school. This is due in the first place to the way in which the various parties (CWI, municipalities and RMC) tackle the problem and in the second place to the way in which these parties work with each other and with other players in the education, care and assistance sectors. Precisely because of the complex problems these young people face, the organisations should have a clear understanding of the obstacles and tackle them so that the young people can return to school or find a job. To this end, the assistance must satisfy the following conditions:

• The obstacles facing the young people should be analysed quickly and fully (diagnosis).

• Outreach workers should be appointed who actively work on solving the problems (i.e. systematically tackle the specific problems facing the young people).

• Carers should use instruments that are appropriate to the problems.

• Carers from different organisations should systematically work together and share information with each other.

• One carer should be appointed to coordinate and manage the care.

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Recommendations

We recommend that the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW) call on the CWI and municipalities to improve their intake diagnoses and provide more intensive assistance to young people with complex problems. We recommend that the Minister for Youth and Families (J&G) and the Minister of SZW study, in consultation with the implementing bodies, whether enough effective instruments are available for young people with specific problems (such as psychological problems or lack of motivation) and whether those instruments are sufficiently known to the carers. We recommend that the Minister for J&G, in consultation with the Ministers of SZW, Education, Culture and Science (OCW), and Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), determine how compartmentalisation can be reduced between bodies in different service chains (work and income, education, and care). The Ministers should also ensure that agreements are made more frequently on which carer coordinates and manages the care.

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Responses

The politicians, UWV benefits agency, CWI and the Association of Netherlands Municipalities refer in their responses to the measures that are being taken to improve the care provided to unemployed young people with multiple problems. They include the introduction of locations for work and income, the Referral Index for High-Risk Youngsters and the participation budget. These measures included a number of good initiatives but proposals for improvement are still lacking. We think particular attention should be paid to improving diagnoses, providing enough appropriate instruments and improving cooperation between service chains (especially work and income, and care). In our opinion, these aspects are essential to provide the young people in our audit with the assistance they need.

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