House of Representatives plays limited role in setting contributions to social insurance funds
Social insurance funds report deficit for first time in many years in 2013
The deficit is expected to rise to €6.7 billion in 2014, chiefly because the rising expenditure from the General Unemployment Fund cannot be met from the contributions paid into the social insurance funds. The State is having to make up the shortfall. As the contributions do not cover the outgoings, the deficit will probably continue to rise in the current unfavourable economic conditions. The House of Representatives and the Senate play only a limited role in setting the level of contributions to the social insurance funds. The Court of Audit presents these findings in a letter with comments on the 2014 budget of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW), which it sent to the House on 2 December 2013.
The letter also considers the government's forthcoming decentralisations measures and the lack of concrete targets in SZW's budget for the additional funds released to tackle youth unemployment.
The letter is only in Dutch available.