Funding for The Hague’s subsidised STiP jobs formally ends this year, and the new city coalition may not renew it.
The scheme has run for almost ten years, placing long-term benefit claimants in jobs such as school caretaker or care assistant, with a city subsidy for employers.
The coalition agreement of Hart voor Den Haag, VVD, Denk and the CDA says the city will stop schemes that do not work and concentrate on sectors where lasting employment is most likely.
Rajesh Ramnewash of FNV Haaglanden has written to alderman Nur Icar that ending STiP would be a blow to hundreds of residents.
He says about 2,000 people have been helped over ten years and that roughly two thirds, some 1,400, went on to lasting work.
Scrapping it would also harm the non-profit employers the city needs, he argues, and the union objects that the council never discussed the change.
Icar says the financing was always temporary and that he understands the resulting concern and uncertainty.
Whether STiP continues is part of the reform choices the city government is weighing, and he expects to inform the council in November.
