"This report analyses patterns of work and use of benefits over the full life course on the basis of Dutch data. The available data, however, only cover a period of twelve years. Therefore, the patterns observed during this period are used to simulate life courses for a cohort. The simulation implies that for each (simulated) member of the cohort we know on a quarterly basis for approximately 50 years whether he has a job, a social benefit or neither a job nor a social benefit. So, we have approximately 200 data points for each (simulated) individual. The original data on which the simulation model is based contain the following individual characteristics: age, gender and ethnic origin. The level of education was estimated on the basis of income data from our dataset. The distinction according to these four characteristics has been maintained in the simulation." (author's abstract)