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Sorgdrager steps down as mediator after criticism from the benefits foundation

Within a week of her appointment, Winnie Sorgdrager resigned as a mediator in the recovery of benefits. As a judge of the Council of State, in 2014, Sorgdrager appears to have ruled against benefit parents.

Yvonne Hofs

is a political reporter for de Volkskrant and writes about finance and agriculture.

April 14, 2025, 9:10 PM

For this reason, the Foundation for (Equal) worthy Recovery (SGH) objects to her appointment. The fact that Sorgdrager, as a state council, ruled in several lawsuits that parents were not entitled to childcare allowance means that she was compromised in advance, says SGH.

Secretary of State Sandra Palmen (Allowances) announced Sorgdrager's appointment to the world by letter to Parliament last Wednesday. The choice for the former D66 minister was made without prior consultation with the foundation. One day later, SGH was alerted to the August 2014 Council of State rulings.

Adjudicted verdicts

SGH writes to Palmen that there are many risks associated with the appointment. Caregiver could be personally damaged because those affected by the benefits scandal will question her independence. “There is a risk that parents feel inadequate because the government, who says it wants to work to restore trust, appoints a government commissioner who has been an active part of the benefits scandal.”

Due to these concerns from SGH, Sorgdrager decided on Monday to return the order. About the appealed verdicts, she writes Palmen: “In these cases, I complied with the former case law of the Council of State, which chose a strict line.”

That clean line consisted of the Supreme Administrative Court approving the all-or-nothing approach to parents for years, with the tax authorities recovering the full childcare allowance due to the slightest imperfection. The Council of State later took the plunge.

As government commissioner, Sorgdrager had to make a breakthrough in the long-running conflict between SGH and the Ministry of Finance. The ministry wants Princess Laurentien to relinquish her statutory powers as SGH founder, because otherwise the checks and balances at SGH would not be correct. According to Finance, the foundation board and the supervisory board are too influenced by the princess and her co-founder, lawyer Gerd van Atten.

Impasse

SGH does not want to drop the founders and also has different ideas about the completion of the recovery operation than Palmen and its officials. Palmen has appointed SGH to arrange compensation for most of the approximately 40 thousand affected parents.

But SGH believes that the more than one hundred thousand children of those parents, and the approximately ten thousand (former) partners, should also be entitled to guidance from SGH. The ministry fears that the recovery operation will take too long and cost too much if all those people can also report to SGH for additional compensation.

These disagreements have caused an impasse and the recovery operation has been almost at a standstill for some time, while Palmen hopes to complete it before the end of 2027. The Secretary of State writes to the House of Representatives that she regrets Sorgdrager's decision but understands it. Palmen says he is considering the situation that has arisen, and promises to inform the House about next steps as soon as possible.