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ANNOUNCEMENTS•
People cannot apply for a STAP budget for a course or training in January 2023. The government will cancel the application around that month due to abuses. According to the Ministries of Social Affairs and Education, it takes time to introduce legislation to combat this phenomenon.
Every adult Dutch person is entitled to the STAP budget, an amount of 1000 euros. It is intended to follow a course or training, provided it improves the applicant’s position in the labor market.
Demand for this goes through the UWV, in several shifts a year. In total, according to the implementing body, more than 200,000 people have benefited from the program this year
Abroad
Several stories have recently surfaced about courses that didn’t seem to meet the conditions, such as a study abroad trip, a retirement course, or a get-rich-quick course. Also discovered RTL News that providers significantly increased their tuition fees after the introduction of the STAP budget.
More than 2700 courses have been canceled since the beginning of the budget. Currently, 3,500 courses, which fall under 200 trainers, are being reviewed to see if they are good enough.
The cabinet is also working to introduce tougher rules. For example, a maximum number of participants can take a course, to avoid trainers trying to recruit many participants for cheap courses.
Behind the net
Due to the huge popularity of the budget, people have been fishing for the past year regularly behind the net if they wanted to apply to the UWV. Canceling the new round means they have to wait even longer for a new chance.
The available budget remains the same, but is now spread over successive rounds. The next one starts on February 28th.
