Employers are missing out on tens of thousands of euros in subsidies and financial incentives designed to encourage them to take on older workers.

A study by financial advice bureau Aon said the growing bureaucratic burden, with the number of different rules increasing from 70 to more than 100 in the last three years, was partly to blame for companies not taking up their opportunities, Trouw reported.

The average company with 250 or more employees is missing out on €87,000 in bonuses, tax rebates, compensation and transition payments associated with hiring disabled workers and those aged over 55, Aon concluded.

‘It’s a tangled web of regulations,’ researcher Daniel Rijnbeek told the newspaper, adding that recent laws giving municipalities more scope to introduce their own incentives had crowded the picture still further. ‘If we add in all those regulations the number is much higher. Some regulations miss their target.’

Larger companies with offices in several locations often gave up trying to deal with the different rules imposed by various municipal councils, Rijnbeek said. ‘That means they miss out on potential subsidies, adaptations in the workplace, job coaches or other forms of support.’

The most commonly missed subsidy is the tax break for companies with older workers in long-term service. ‘This rule has a relatively small impact on large companies,’ said Rijnbeek. ‘But for small and medium-sized businesses, the job creators of the Netherlands, it definitely affects their personnel policies.’