News & Politics•11 Jul 16:10 •Updated on 12 Jul 01:00

Princess Laurentien calls criticism of claims handling benefits affair 'utter nonsense'

Author: BNR Webredactie

Princess Laurentien is unhappy with the criticism she received for the “Laurentien method”, a way to compensate allowance parents more quickly. For example, it was possible to read that affected parents were able to easily withhold large amounts of money through Laurentien's foundation. The princess contradicts this and says in BNR's Big Five that the compensation paid out by her foundation is “very carefully”.

The “Laurentien method”, named after Princess Laurentien, ended up receiving 2.3 billion euros from the previous cabinet. This week, the Senate also approved the budget. The pilot to accelerate the help of victims of the benefits scandal thus has enough money to go ahead for now.

'There's so much bias and mistrust there'

Princess Laurentien

Under the “Laurentie method”, claims processing is outsourced to the Equal Recovery Foundation, of which Princess Laurentien is the founder. The affected parents can tell their story to the foundation. Amounts are then paid out based on that. For example, there is a pre-determined compensation in return for a divorce that caused the benefits affair.

The affected parents can also contact the tax authorities for compensation. However, the processing of claims for the tax authorities is a very time-consuming process. That's why many parents would rather be helped by the foundation, says Princess Laurentien in BNR's Big Five. In addition, parents prefer not to tell their story again with the organization responsible for the benefits scandal.

Listen too

• Princess Laurentien: 'No amount can make up for what the allowance parents have experienced'

Immediately distrusted again

Recently, there has been a lot of criticism of Princess Laurentien's foundation. The parents would hardly have to provide evidence, it was claimed. An anecdote that was shown on television in a distorted voice, with someone claiming it was easy to push back large amounts of money, almost led to the end of the foundation's initiative. The princess dismisses this as “utter nonsense”.

Princess Laurentien denounces how quickly parents become distrusted again. After the criticism of her initiative, it was almost immediately suggested that parents were claiming too much compensation, even though this is not true, according to the princess. She speaks of a pattern that allowed the allowance affair to happen. The parents are caught with one small mistake, one irregularity, and then distrusted. The princess blames the media that participated. “For example, a sentence like “They take what the parents say indiscriminately”. There's so much bias and mistrust in that. '

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• “The government also acts unlawfully when dealing with the benefits affair”

Comparable to personal injury

She compares compensation for allowance parents with compensation for personal injury. The model was therefore co-developed by personal injury experts. Just like when dealing with personal injury, the parents are asked by Laurentien's scheme what happened. Parents then keep an account of the facts, sometimes including accompanying documentation. In this way, they provide evidence, but they do not feel that they have to prove themselves as victims again. After all, that brings back memories of all those years in which they unsuccessfully asked the tax authorities for help, says the princess.

Princess Laurentien sees the expensive compensation scheme as a confrontation with the past, even for the victims. The benefits affair was not an accident, she says, but a “series of accidents that took place over a period of fifteen years.” The damage is therefore difficult to foresee. The parents may have seen their marriage on the rocks, but they also suffered other damages, such as a company bankruptcy. “In total, you will end up with a large amount of damage. That's also how it works in Dutch claims law. '

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• 'Allowance scandal could have been prevented with a think tank'

The amount of the damage is the result of an extremely careful process, the princess emphasizes. The affected parents receive an amount that does justice to the damage they have suffered, insofar as an amount can make up for the lost years. “If you just look through the lens of money, you won't get there.”