Children about the suffering caused by the benefits affair: 'So my life didn't have to go like this'

In addition to parents, the allowance affair also affected 95 thousand children. The Rotterdams Wijktheater made a theater performance about their “lost childhood”. De Volkskrant spoke to three stakeholders. 'I've always wondered why my family was so messed up. '

Marieke de Ruiter June 7, 2024, 5:00 AM

The moment when the family of then-8-year-old Noraly Silva Soares was cut off from electricity was almost festive. Noraly was about to go to bed when her parents had to hasten out candles from cupboards. That's how she was brought up in the light of candlelight. 'I thought it was a big adventure', she says. “Especially because my father said halfway up the stairs: don't tell this at school.”

Now, more than eight years later, Noraly knows it wasn't a festive moment at all. It was a low point for her parents, who had a tax debt of almost a ton as a result of the benefits affair. A debt that held the six-member family hostage in poverty for a total of almost fifteen years. 'I didn't know better than there was never any money', says Noraly, now 16 years old. “But now that I know the reason, I know I could have known better.”

About the AuthorMarieke de Ruiter is an economics editor for de Volkskrant. She writes about the labor market and social security, among other things.

The Netherlands has more than 95 thousand children like Noraly. Children whose parents were targeted in a fraud hunt that got out of hand. Like that of their parents, their lives were also marked by poverty and money worries. But unlike their parents, they had no idea of the cause. And there is another difference: their stories have often remained untold so far.