The volunteer job which Groningen mayor Peter Rehwinkel is planning to do in Spain while claiming unemployment benefit does not exist, the AD reports on Wednesday.

Rehwinkel said earlier this month he will leave the Groningen post early to work full-time as a disaster manager for a Barcelona-based international organisation and that he will ‘make limited use’ of the special civil service jobless benefit while doing so.

Rehwinkel wrote on his Facebook page on October 3 he had been named ‘special representative on local government disaster management’ at the United Cities and Local Government umbrella organisation during the UCGL conference in Rabat.

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‘Mr Rehwinkel has not been named by us,’ spokeswoman Marie Laure Roa told the paper. ‘He proposed looking into whether such a job is possible. We have not published anything about it because there is nothing concrete.’

Nor is there office space in Barcelona for Rehwinkel, the paper said.

Rehwinkel has been heavily criticised for saying he will claim jobless benefits even though he is leaving his post as mayor voluntarily. Home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk said he will have to apply for paid jobs.

A spokesman for Rehwinkel told Nos television the mayor is on holiday and will not comment on the new revelations