35,000 people received a training subsidy of 1,000 euros. As of March 1, people can sign up for the so-called STAP budget, and on the third day the first round budget has been exhausted. This was announced by the UWV, which implements the subsidy scheme.

With a STAP budget, people can do training to further develop in order to enhance their position in the job market. This was the first of five application rounds this year.

70,000 in the queue

The counter opened on Tuesday and by Thursday noon the total budget for the first round had been spent. Not everyone who wanted to apply was able to receive support: at peak times there were 70,000 machines in the queue, says Tove Thiessen, director of UWV in the Netherlands. Radio NOS 1 news.

“We couldn’t make an estimate up front,” Tessin says. “This is a new scheme. Will 500 people, 10,000, 100,000 people sign up? We didn’t know. Anyway, it turned out to be a huge success.”

The waiting list was very long, and due to a number of technical disruptions, productivity was not going well, says Thiessen. The UWV is trying to correct this when the next round begins on May 1.

complaints

Complaints have also been received from people who have been on the waiting list for a long time and have not been reached, or people whose orders have been cut short. In this case, they were fishing behind the nets.

earlier Experts said that it is often the most promising people in the labor market who can find these benefits. “In the coming periods, we will allocate money to people least able to digitally find their way into the STAP budget,” Tessen says. From the next round, they can go to the UWV offices to apply for the STAP budget.

This year there are still four moments of application. The next submission moment is May 1. There is a total budget for this year of 160,000 applications.