'Not my fault': 6-part podcast by Sander't Sas about five years of recovery

“NOT MY FAULT” - penetrating 6-part series by Sander't Sas about five years of recovery surgery, makes it clear that recovery is far from complete

On December 5, 2025, I had Sander't Sas, an investigative journalist at my home One Today of AVROTROS, spoken and information shared. He is working on a podcast about 5 years of recovery surgery. After his initial skepticism - “everything has already been told” - he sets out. On February 6, 2026, I drove to the studio in Hilversum to speak to Sander himself about the result of his trip: listening to the 6-part podcast “Not my fault”, from February 16, 2026.

Why did you create this series and how did you do it?

“I've been working on it for a year and a half and I've seen just about the whole of the Netherlands.” Benefits father Roger Derikx brought me into contact with Princess Laurentien, I went to his employer, spoke to his son and then the ball started rolling. The series was designed to take the listener step by step. The podcast should just reach people who are tired of the benefits affair. The focus is specifically on the traumatic impact on children. The podcast reveals new shocking details. “The goal is to reach a large audience and, just like my previous podcast “Taxi War”, to create political awareness and impact. What are the main causes and what did the systemic failure look like? Sander is 100% convinced that the affair was essentially caused by “pure racism”. He compares this with other historical events, takes his 13-year-old daughter to The Hague and lets her read the basics of the constitution in the podcast. His daughter cannot imagine discrimination in the Netherlands. He insists that it is a shock to realize that this will is the case. In addition to ethnicity, people were made suspect based on random reports, fluctuations in income and thus ended up on blacklists.

Systematic failure

Aleid Wolfsen of the Data Protection Authority (AP) | Dutch DPA warns: 'The lists are still widespread and victims must remain alert for life, which makes real closure impossible'. Systemic failure is it. Throughout the chain, from youth care to judges. The Council for the Judiciary acknowledged that too much attention was being paid to the financial situation of parents. Agencies acted according to protocols instead of humanity, which led to a lack of self-cleaning capacity within the government.

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What are the remaining problems and what are their impacts? “A central problem is that former partners and children fall outside the compensation arrangements and can only join the original applicant, which is often impossible due to broken contact. 'I've heard harrowing stories. The benefits affair is far from over. The result is: irreparable trauma. Every day, the impact is felt by ongoing debts, unresolved removals and blacklists. The treatment is inadequate, insensitive and inadequate. “The personal stories need to be told permanently.

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Listen to Sander't Sas's compelling podcast series here. Click the link: 👇Not My Fault | NPO Listen