荷兰北部的弗里斯兰省最近出台了一项政策，靠政府福利金生活的无业单身女性将享受到价值1400欧元的美容和婚介服务，还会有专业人士向她们传授社交技巧，希望能帮助她们找到有一定经济实力的另一半，并由此减少政府福利开支。

Unemployed¹ Dutch women are being offered a €1,400 (£1,150) fashion and beauty makeover（化妆美容） and free membership of a dating agency to get them off the dole²（赈济物，施舍品） by finding a solvent³（有溶解力的，有偿付能力的） husband. Single jobseekers will be given a new hairstyle and outfit⁴, and tips from a life coach on how to attract a new partner or a job.

They will also be given instruction in social and presentation skills and a place on the exclusive（独有的，专一的） matchmaking service Mens & Relatie (People and Relationships), boosted by a professional photograph of their new image. Mens & Relatie claims a 75 percent success rate in finding long-term partners for its clients.

The thinking behind the scheme, organised by three councils in Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands, is that finding love helps to get the unemployed off state benefits by improving confidence, ambition and motivation. Some local politicians, however, have criticised it as unethical and a waste of taxpayers’ money.

“This is a total concept of trying to get people out of social security,” said Radboud Visser, the managing director of Mens & Relatie, which was hired by the three municipalities（市民，自治市） to find employed new partners for unemployed lonely hearts. “We know from national statistics that people in a relationship have better health, more happiness, make more money and live longer lives. They make less use of medical systems and social security. So in Friesland they thought, we can try to get people out of social security by bringing them to a nice new husband.”

Mr Visser said that the first candidate for the scheme had already enrolled⁵. It is available to men and women, but he said he expected most of his clients to be female. “Social security costs €650 a month and Friesland pays us around €650 once — so when they are able to get someone out of social security, they have made their money back after just one month,” he said.

More than 600 unemployed people are eligible⁶ for（有资格的） the scheme in the three councils. However, after publicity⁷, some of it adverse⁸, in the Dutch media, the scheme has been put on hold（搁置，延期） in one of the councils and put under review in the second, with a spokesman saying they were “reconsidering their plans”.

Mr Visser has no doubts that the State and the unemployed will benefit. “If you go for a job interview or on an interview for a new partner, it is almost the same thing. You must be sure you look good, you take care of your body and your face and you say the right things.

“I am sure that people who have done this will be on social security for less time because they will find a job and a partner.”