New website for advice on working or living in Germany

Cross-border workers, who live in the Netherlands but work in Germany, for instance, have to meet a lot of information requirements. It often takes them a lot of time (as much as 33 hours a year) to collect, process, record, keep and furnish all the required information. To make it easier for them, a web portal has now been set up to provide information for workers crossing the border between the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, Piet Hein Donner, launched the Internet portal www.startpuntgrensarbeid.nl on 31 March 2010 in Venlo along with Karl-Josef Laumann, the Minister of Employment, Health and Social Affairs of the German Land of North Rhine-Westphalia. The portal provides people who live in the Netherlands or Germany and work on the other side of the border with answers to practical questions. There are some 45,000 people working in the Netherlands who live in Germany, and there are estimated to be 10,000 people working in Germany and living in the Netherlands.

Cross-border workers can use the portal to find information on such things as taxes and social security. By filling in a checklist they can obtain personalized information and useful links to personal advisers and relevant authorities.

The Internet portal is based on a statement of intent signed by the two ministers in May 2009, in which they agreed to improve the provision of information to cross-border workers. The portal is in line with the government-wide service programme of the State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Ank Bijleveld, the aim of which is to reduce the administrative burden on the public, including specific reference to cross-border workers.