Abbreviation OGS led to misery for allowance parents

“It is illegal if the computer of De Belastingdienst puts' OGS 'after your name. For years, the tax authorities have put people on a heavy list because of their origin or origin, or because they were part of a certain social or cultural group that was thought to be more likely to commit fraud. Once you were on that list and did not provide the correct information about, for example, income or childcare costs, “OGS” was added to your name. Three small letters, with very big consequences.
Those letters stand for “Intent or Gross Debt”. We now know that those three letters automatically meant that your surcharges were stopped, that what you had already received was recovered and that you were not given a payment arrangement. You then had to pay off your entire debt within two years and did not participate in a debt restructuring process.

It didn't stop there. When municipalities asked the tax authorities for information to assess an application for benefits, a social support provision or debt counseling, it was also shared that there were problematic debts that were caused intentionally or through gross negligence. Information that wasn't supposed to be shared at all and that wasn't based on anything. It was information that was used by municipalities; it could even lead to the estimation that your children should be removed from home.
The tax authorities's black list is not paper. It is a computer system. It has the official name of the Fraud Signaling Facility (“FSV”). On May 25, the House of Representatives will debate this system.

I hope that the debate will result in all municipalities being obliged to provide information about the debt problems of 250,000 citizens (!) to remove those included in the FSV from their data systems. Only then can three lower case letters be prevented from continuing to play a role in a youth counselor's assessment of your suitability as an educator, or an income counselor, of your reliability. Do justice where injustice has been done, for sure. But preventing injustice from being done again is just as important. What do you think?

Bart Tromp is a lecturer in juvenile law and a researcher at the University of Groningen. He is also a children's judge in the Northern Netherlands District Court. He writes this opinion in a personal capacity.”