A Gideons gang is also needed to repair the benefits scandal: Renske Leijten speaks
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Published on: May 23, 2024May 23, 2024
What do you start with a column for? ESB about the benefits scandal? With the wrongful fraud allegations that plunged tens of thousands into huge debts and abject poverty? With the look away from policy makers and politicians who knew for years that things were going really wrong? With a solution that is' complicated '(read: being created) that won't come about anyway? With the failing justice system that didn't protect people? Or with the now sky-high costs of an unlawfully operating government? Because, for those who missed it, they are already huge in financial terms alone. The estimated amount for the recovery operation from the benefits scandal — I refuse to call it an affair, it's far too cozy and frivolous — is now almost FOURTEEN billion (sorry my caps lock lingers). With each new budget, with each spring note and with each autumn note, the bill increases.
It is remarkable to say the least that the costs of the recovery operation are skyrocketing. Because who, the report? Blind to people and justice who has read the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on Fraud Policy and Services, you will certainly remember that financial policy choices played a role in the hardening of fraud policy (House of Representatives, 2024). These “choices” mean the tax authorities' targets for finding fraud. Former minister Donner mentioned this in his report Looking back in wonder in 2020, even “moral corruption”: “There is an institutional interest in cutting as many benefits or surcharges as possible so as not to face budget deficits, which almost automatically hampers the careful and balanced representation of the entrusted public interests.” (Donner Commission, 2020). The service no longer saw that they were working unlawfully, or took it for granted. The calls from exhausted parents with children, who called the tax authorities in total desperation, were dealt with by another department. However, since the exposure of the benefits scandal, these financial considerations no longer seem to play a role in the government. There is mainly talk about who would be guilty and there is a lot of reflection. The Council for the Judiciary and the Council of State analysed their role. And the House of Representatives has shown through an extensive survey that a combination of many factors made it happen — and also, that it can happen again today (House of Representatives, 2020). With this theme issue, you wear ESB contribute to reflection, and all these initiatives are useful. The unlawful fraud policy of the entire tax authorities (no, it wasn't just the Benefits Department) has an exorbitant price tag. The policy choices that underlie this ineffective and disproportionate recovery operation are definitely to blame for this. An unnecessary amount of money goes into implementation, advice and legal wrangling. This is of course unacceptable for the victims who are once again caught in a bureaucratic swamp, but also economically and administratively. For years, I have been looking for the answer to the question why this is happening. Why was it possible to calculate the targets to be achieved with fraud business cases and get them into the Central Planning Bureau's estimates, but that is not possible with a expedient and rapid compensation? Where are the intelligent readers of ESB and remained the handsome modelers from Finance and the Planning Bureau? Just as the benefits scandal came to light five years ago through an unorthodox way of a lawyer working with journalists and MPs in opposition and coalition, a Gideon gang is now also needed. From economists and officials, numerators and moralists, from anyone else. The one with the adage “if you do what you did, you get what you had” together a plan to make a plan to not only eliminate illegal work in government services, but also create a form of compensation that is fast, effective, lawful and considerably cheaper. It is high time to stop the cynical waste of money — fourteen billion —! Who participates?
Literature
Donner Commission (2020)) Looking forward to wonder. Final opinion Advisory Committee on the implementation of surcharges, March 12. House of Representatives (2020) Chris van Dam speech at the presentation of the report of the Parliamentary Childcare Allowance Interrogation Committee, December 17. Available at www.Tweedekamer.nl.Tweede Kamer (2024) Blind to people and justice. Report of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on Fraud Policy and Services, 26 February.
Author
- Renske Leijten
- Member of the House of Representatives for the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2023 and author of “We can't make it nicer” about the benefits scandal
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