As part of my graduation project for the Hague University of Applied Sciences, I interned at the Haarlem Municipality. The project was done at the Innovation and Technology department, together with workers from the Work and Income department.
At the start of the project, I was told the municipality had no way to efficiently provide the residents with information regarding their unemployment allowance. This allowance is given to citizens who do not have enough income or that cannot work (due to several factors).
Currently, both the application process and the information exchange are done in a somewhat cumbersome way that requires the citizens to fill out paper forms and go through several rounds of face-to-face interviews. Because of that, the process can not only take longer than expected (6 to 8 weeks), but it also places the citizens in a blind spot since the only way to get an update on the process is to call the municipality.
My project’s goal was to fix these limitations and create a better experience for both the applicants and the employees reviewing the applications.
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