Recovery surgery Allowances lucrative for employees of the Laurentien Foundation
Benefits scandal Princess Laurentien's (Equal) worthy Recovery Foundation does not aim for profit. But employees receive high rewards. Every year, almost a quarter of a million euros also flows to another foundation owned by the princess.
The (Equal) worthy Recovery (SGH) foundation, founded by Princess Laurentien, promises to contribute to the recovery operation after the Benefits scandal at low implementation costs. Also because the foundation works a lot with volunteers. But documents released by the Ministry of Finance, in the run-up to a Parliamentary debate about the recovery operation next Thursday, show that the foundation certainly does not only run on volunteers. According to the budget, the foundation hires between two hundred and three hundred employees, who cost between 144,000 and 243,000 euros per person annually. In addition, from the amounts transferred by the Ministry of Finance, 240,000 euros flow annually via SGH to another Princess Laurentien foundation, the Number 5 Foundation. This is evident from the published budget from the foundation. The entire order that the Ministry of Finance has awarded to SGH amounts to 100 million euros. 12 million euros of this has now been transferred to SGH, says the ministry when asked. In the near future, SGH is supposed to set up an organization that will help 20,000 affected parents in the Benefits scandal determine their final compensation. To compensate all almost 40,000 recognized affected parents and their loved ones for the suffering that has caused them, the cabinet has now earmarked 11.7 billion euros. Of this, 2.4 billion euros are intended for carrying out the recovery operation — around 20 percent of the total costs. Princess Laurentien's (Equal) worthy Recovery (SGH) Foundation believes that implementation can be cheaper: instead of 20 percent, joins SGH only between 4 and 10 percent of the total costs for implementation — such as costs for staff, housing and ICT. Founders Gerd van Atten and Princess Laurentien van Oranje, now resigned as chairman, worked unpaid for the foundation since its inception. Members of the Supervisory Board, including chairman Gert-Jan Segers (former leader ChristenUnie), also do it without compensation.
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Commercial rates
For employees, the alternative recovery operation appears to be financially attractive. Although the foundation is not focused on profit, the budget shows. This means, for example, that spokespersons are hired for a full-time position for more than one and a half tons per year. According to the budget, the thirty forces that coordinate everything within the foundation have been scaled to 172,800 euros per year. Employees in the financial department can charge an average of 182,400 per year, ICT professionals declare 220,000 euros per year and the legal staff earn the most: 243,840 euros. By comparison, Prime Minister Schoof touches 189,000 euros annually and the top officials in the Ministry of Finance roughly one and a half tons. By the way, according to the SGH spokesperson, “there are no commercial rates, because the hired people with this expertise usually earn a lot more” .SGH confirms that co-founder Van Atten is one of the paid legal staff. The foundation emphasizes that he has previously worked unremunerated for a long time for the alternative recovery route. According to the foundation, it uses a rate that is common in the social advocacy for these legal staff: 127 euros per hour. But no one in that sector can declare their entire working week at that rate. The court uses a maximum number of hours per type of case. In practice, the case of a homeless person or refugee usually takes much longer than is reimbursed. “A single-burner can generate 100,000 to 140,000 euros in turnover per year. You will certainly never exceed two tons,” says Joris Sprakel, a lawyer from Haarlem who focuses on people with little money. And all costs for support staff, housing, and professional literature still have to be deducted from that turnover. However, the legal staff hired by SGH can declare all their hours. And office costs are reimbursed separately, according to the budget approved by the Ministry of Finance. For example, SGH expected to invest 126,000 euros in IT every month last season. In an explanation of the cooperation with the government, the foundation wrote this summer: “Our knowledge partners — personal injury experts Aegon and Achmea, Arag and the Netherlands Bar Association — volunteer their independent expertise at the service of this approach.” That, too, no longer appears to be the case. The foundation's biggest expense is the claims experts that the foundation hires. For the month of November, SGH expects to pay 1.7 million euros to 86 experts who check full-time at 92 euros per hour whether the calculations for estimated damage and compensation are correct.
Partner foundations
The financial relationships between SGH and the Number 5 Foundation Foundation, another initiative by Princess Laurentien, of which she is still a director, are also remarkable. According to the spokesperson for both foundations, these are “partner foundations” that work together. On the one hand, SGH emphasizes that it makes free use of Number 5's office building, which is also pro bono performs work for SGH. At the same time, Number 5 charges 3,000 euros in office costs every month — for cleaning, kitchen use, internet and equipment, and the deployment of the “home team”. In addition, the Game Changers Academy of Number 5 onboarding sessions for SGH employees. In it, they are updated about “the origin of the foundation” and trained in “the human approach based on trust”. SGH's budget includes 17,000 euros per month for training courses. The ministry confirms that amount. In total, 240,000 euros flow from SGH to Number 5 on an annual basis. In a response, the foundation writes that “all amounts that Number 5 charges to SGH non-profit only cover costs and are approved by the accountant”. Money from SGH also went to Number 5 in 2023. In that year, SGH transferred 82,500 euros to Number 5, due to the use of “expertise and facilities”, confirms the foundation. The spokesperson for both foundations does not want to say whether Number 5 charged other costs to SGH in 2024 or received money for other work within the recovery operation Fees. Neither foundation plans to make comprehensive annual financial reports for 2023 and 2024 public.This article has been supplemented with a quote from the SGH spokesperson about the rates.
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A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of November 6, 2024.
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