House wants to continue with 'Laurentien' method for victims of the benefits affair under certain conditions
NOS News•Thursday, June 13, 6:04 PM
House wants to continue with 'Laurentien' method for victims of the benefits affair under certain conditions
- Jorn Jonker political reporter
The House of Representatives wants to continue, under certain conditions, with the method devised by Princess Laurentien to compensate victims of the benefits affair. There is widespread appreciation in the House for her Equal Recovery Foundation, but conditions are set for the amounts she pays out.
A broad group of parties has asked the cabinet to resume working with this method and scale it up before the summer holidays. However, this requires that the foundation must now comply with the recommendations from an evaluation by the Ministry of Finance.
This means that there are stricter requirements for how this foundation spends tax money. For example, money may no longer be paid out for things someone experienced prior to the time someone was affected by the benefits affair.
Nor should compensation be given twice for the same unpleasant event. That did happen, according to the evaluation. And so, more recommendations were made to make the foundation's work easier to explain.
The House of Representatives thus supports what outgoing Secretary of State De Vries (Allowances) was already planning: continue with the “Laurentien method” but with stricter conditions. De Vries is still negotiating those conditions with the foundation. “We're already talking about that. And I expect we'll be able to figure that out soon. That's important for the parents.”
When dealing with claims by the Equal Recovery Foundation, affected parents can tell their story and amounts will be paid out based on that. If someone is divorced as a result of the stress caused by the benefits affair, for example, a standard amount will be paid out.
On average, parents receive more compensation via the “Laurentien method” than through the government's own method. In an internal note warned officials that this would cost the processing billions more, but the foundation disputes that.
The VVD minister said in the debate that she was happy with the foundation but called it “difficult to explain” that money was paid out for events that happened before the benefits affair. And she told the House that continuing to use this method means extra spending. The PVV questioned this because, according to this party, choosing this route could mean savings on the government's recovery route.
'Snail that slows down in the corn'
Most MPs did not have a good word about the government's recovery route. Those affected by the benefits affair will receive 30,000 euros, but if they have suffered more damage, they could always come to the Actual Damage Commission.
Because the committee set up by the government works slowly and arouses a lot of resistance from parents, Pieter Omtzigt (NSC) renamed it “Commission for Real Shame” in the debate. Christenunie MP Grinwis said the committee works at a pace “of a snail that slows down at the bend”.
All the more reason for MPs to be happy with the independent Equal Recovery Foundation, although, according to the Secretary of State, it is more expensive and should therefore be subject to even stricter requirements. The MPs did slap the Secretary of State because the trial with this recovery route was stopped after the evaluation, leading to a lot of uncertainty among benefit parents who had placed their hopes on this route.
PVV MP Mulder felt that parents' hopes were unfairly raised. The agreement was that a limited trial would first be done with this recovery route. A maximum of 300 people would be allowed to participate and then we would see what kind of lessons could be learned.
Thousands of registrations
But now that there are already more than 2,000 applications for the foundation's recovery route, no one dares to take hope from these parents, said the PVV'er. Parents present at the debate confirmed that no one had told them beforehand that this recovery route is a trial that could also be stopped.
State Secretary De Vries promised Omtzigt that she is doing her best to quickly find a solution for parents who had already registered with the Equal Recovery Foundation, but who had not yet completed the process when an evaluation showed that the recovery route was more expensive and could not be explained at points, according to officials.
- Laurentien Foundation and Ministry are upset about the benefits affair, cabinet will decide tomorrow
- polices
.avif)