“Unorthodox measure”

Thousands of allowance parents receive a settlement proposal of 5000 euros

By RTL News/ANP·yesterday·Updated: 23 hours ago

RTL News

A group of 4,700 victims in the benefits scandal receives a settlement proposal of 5,000 euros. These are parents who have been recognized as victims and have received initial compensation but have objected to their compensation proposal.

They can then choose to accept the money and drop their objection, making up for the big backlog. So far, 250 people have been approached with such a proposal, reports the Ministry of Finance after reporting from Nieuwsuur.

Half responds positively

Half of them responded positively; 30 percent considered the proposal. Around 5 percent rejected the settlement proposal. The measure, which was already announced in June by then Secretary of State Aukje de Vries, is unorthodox, the ministry acknowledges. “Of course, we would prefer to handle every objection carefully, but practice also shows us that in many cases it is not possible to do that within the legal period.” In the past, the intervention has been “successfully applied” to the repair operation for the earthquake damage in Groningen. The settlement amount of 5000 euros was chosen because that amount is just about in the middle of all additional payments after a well-founded objection. Three quarters of the objections dealt with so far have resulted in no additional payment or an additional amount below 5000 euros.

“Parents are completely free to accept or not accept the settlement proposal,” Finances stressed in a response. “If a parent does not accept the proposal, the objection will be dealt with as usual.” Approached victims get a two-week cooling-off period.

As a rule, allowance parents receive a result of the first “comprehensive assessment” fairly on time. But parents who are recognized as victims often have to wait a very long time for further decisions if they think they are entitled to more than the first 30,000 euros they receive after that initial assessment.

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Tax Administration Allowance Affair