Children of welfare households more likely to face unemployment

Young adults who spent their teenage years in a household relying on benefits are far less likely to have a job by the age of 29, according to research by national statistics office CBS.

Some 69% of that group had a job at 29, compared with 89% of those whose families never claimed bijstand, the basic benefit for people with no other means of support.

The gap appears even after short periods on welfare. Of those whose household claimed for less than a year, 77% were working at 29 and 16% were living on benefits.

The same research shows education follows the same pattern. Around 20% of those who grew up partly on welfare had an hbo college or university degree by 29, against 50% of other young adults, and the number of years spent on welfare made little difference.

Those who do work earn less per hour, work fewer hours and are less likely to have a permanent contract: around 60% do, compared with 71% of employees who did not grow up on welfare.

The CBS followed 186,000 people who turned 18 in 2013 and lived in the Netherlands from age 12 to 18. One in 10 grew up at least partly in a household on welfare, and 3% for five years or more.