Tax authorities stop promising personal files for allowance parents - Radar broadcast March 24, 2025

EXCERPT: Tax authorities stop promising personal files for parental allowances | Radar - AVROTROS's consumer programResponse to the Radar broadcast on March 24, 2025 about personal filesRepair of the 2025 allowance affair - State Secretary's response | Radar - AVROTROS's consumer program

State Secretary for Recovery and Allowances Sandra Palmen (Ministry of Finance)

Questions:

On 14 March 2025, the cabinet announced that it would immediately stop compiling and providing the personal file. What does this mean? Will parents never get their personal file again?

Without the personal file, how can parents check that their parent file contains all relevant documents?

Without the personal file, how can parents find answers to questions such as: “Why did I ever become a victim?” , and “Do my problems with the childcare allowance relate to other problems, for example with other benefits, other government services or financial institutions?”

Radar hears from multiple sources that the UHT had already stopped making personal files before March 14, 2025. It has certainly been on the UHT website since February 17, 2025; a UHT representative said it at a hearing on February 5, 2025; an anonymous UHT employee says it stopped at least more than six months ago; and lawyer Köse-Albayrak states that a UHT representative told her at a hearing that the decision was made a year ago.

How does the Secretary of State explain these signals?

Many parents rightly want to know what information UHT used when making decisions. This is important for their recovery. This not only means that the information is available to the parent, but that it also includes a clear explanation.

In recent years, various files have been used, for example for the comprehensive assessment, objection, CWS and personal files. This was confusing for parents and their lawyers.

In recent years, together with benefits lawyers and parents, we have investigated how we can better meet the legal information needs and provide files in the recovery operation that are better suited to the needs of parents and their lawyers. The outcome of that consultation is the parent file. A file that contains all relevant information for all phases in the recovery process. And it can also be provided more quickly.

Parents can always submit a request for this file. By default, parents receive their file when they have objected or make a request for additional damage. UHT has a limited capacity and therefore gives priority to providing the parent file as quickly as possible. This intention was also announced to the House in mid-2022 during various committee meetings and in various progress reports.

The personal file consists of all data and documents concerning all benefits received by the parent (housing allowance, care allowance, child-related budget and childcare allowance), from the start of the benefits to the present day. This can therefore involve the period between 2005 and 2025, or 20 years of information, unstructured and without a filter. The personal file is not about the review of the Childcare Allowance (KOT) carried out by UHT and is therefore not useful for dealing with any objection or request for additional damage. The file is very extensive with information that is not about the KOT reassessment and also contains a great deal of technical and irrelevant information, so that the parent no longer sees the forest through the trees. It also does not answer the question why they were duped.

Because priority is given to providing the parent file as quickly as possible also means that there is currently little or no capacity to provide personal files. In line with the advice of the Van Dam Committee, the Cabinet has therefore decided to stop the personal file as part of the recovery operation.

For people who have submitted a request for a personal file, UHT will contact them to discuss what information parents still need after the recovery process has ended.

For both the parent file and the personal file, it is not available at the touch of a button. There is no large file cabinet that contains a file for everyone who receives or has ever applied for an allowance. A file must be compiled each time by UHT employees from many different systems and often over different years. A fixed, clear framework and instructions have been drawn up for the preparation of the parent file, which, as previously indicated, have been agreed upon in consultation with lawyers and parents. Employees work in accordance with these instructions. However, preparing a file always remains human work, both with the parent file and the personal file.

The tax authorities break their promise: allowance parents will not receive a personal file anyway. It is precisely this information that is crucial to know whether their compensation is correct — and what lists they and their children were all on. Why is the government suddenly withdrawing?

Meanwhile, you pay a lot more for “protein products” in the supermarket. But how much more protein do you actually get in return? Fons delves into the numbers and claims. And: electric Peugeots, Citroëns and Opels are massively struggling with a faulty on-board charger, making charging impossible. Replacement costs thousands of euros, but the manufacturer remains deafeningly silent. Radar finds out who does take responsibility.

Tax authorities stop promising personal files for allowance parents

Thousands of parental benefits have been waiting for their personal file that the tax authorities have about them for years. Only with the complete file can the parents check whether they are receiving the correct compensation. But also getting answers to questions such as: what other lists am I on? And what lists are my children on? The parents were always promised the personal file. But now that promise has been revoked and the question is whether, and if so, when the parents will actually receive the information they are entitled to. In Radar, the consequences for these parental allowances.