Social affairs ministry inspectors have compiled a damning report into the way state-run UWV job centres and local councils are failing to help the unemployed find work, Trouw said on Wednesday.

Councils were given responsibility for finding new jobs for people 25 years ago but this rarely happens and the relationship with the job centres is difficult, the paper reported, quoting an advance copy of the unpublished report.

‘There is an almost permanent cycle of co-ordination and discussion. There are multilateral debates about structures and endless new working groups are set up,’ the paper quotes the report as saying.

The report also criticises the level of expertise at the UWV job centres and among council workers about labour-related issues.

Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher told the paper that some new plans, such as the law on participation by benefit claimants, have led to improvements.