“From Wajong Act to a full-time job. That was a shock 6 months ago,” Quirien says on his LinkedIn page. He hopes that his successful example will inspire others and, above all, make employers more open to people with disabilities.
According to the National Ombudsman, many young people with a Wajong benefit or a benefit under the Participation Act have to live with an income around the social minimum. Laws and regulations may get in the way, which is now reason for research† Quirien Chaigneau (33) did not wait and decided six months ago to take matters into his own hands and start applying for a job. Successfully.
Constraint
“It’s really nice now,” he says. He has completely found his niche with his current employer. Before he started working there, he received, among other things, a Wajong benefit.
He has pdd-nos, a mild form of autism, and that has hindered him in the past. “I have learned to live with that, but it is not recognizable that I have it. If you would hang out with me, you would not notice it. But there is quite a stigma about it,” he explains.
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Difficulty getting by with Wajong
After graduating from school, he tried to get a job, but in his own words he ‘didn’t quite succeed’. “Then I came into contact with the Wajong Act, I started living on my own and did voluntary work.”
But getting by on a Wajong benefit was difficult, he says. “You cannot say: I am going on a trip or I am buying something new. That is simply not possible. In my previous home my bills totaled 900 euros, and with a Wajong benefit I was 100 euros above that. little room for maneuver financially.”
Apply
“Then I tried to go to work and I just didn’t like it,” he continues. He found the job too monotonous, decided to quit and sat at home, but he didn’t like that either. “Then I thought: I’m going to apply again. But I got ‘no’ on everything, which was a shame. If you are lagging behind on the labor market and not much work experience, you will not be hired quickly.”
But when he saw a vacancy at De Floorenman in IJsselstein, he took the plunge and decided to apply. A first conversation followed and he dared to explain it to his situation. To his surprise, a second conversation followed.
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Accepted
With the thought ‘It’s now or never, let’s do this’, he went into that second interview rather nervously and was hired immediately to his great delight. It changed his life.
“I have been married since July 20, 2020 and that has also been a motivation to find a job,” he says. “I want to be able to support myself and my wife and I also have other goals in life that I want to achieve. To be able to travel, I want to get my driver’s license and I also want to be able to buy a house. That sort of thing.”
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Go for it
He is now very happy with his job. Drawing up quotations, taking measurements, administrative work, IT tasks, he does it all.
“I’ve always had something like this: if you want to achieve something, there is also a way to get there,” he explains cheerfully. “You can achieve that if you want. That has also been my motivation: if you don’t go for it, you don’t know where you can end up.”
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Employer must give everyone a chance
As far as he is concerned, the ball is certainly in the court of employers. The way he got the chance, everyone should get a chance, with or without a trial period. “Then you can always have a taste of: hey, is it a bit yes or too no.”
“And of course there are cases when it will not work. But luckily for me it turned out positive and it did work out. I want to tell an employer that: leave your doors open to everyone, whether they have a disability or not As an employer, you must be able to give everyone the opportunity.”
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