tidings

Princess Laurentien Foundation clashes again with the ministry over payment recovery

The foundation that wants to compensate allowance parents with the “Laurentien method” is once again in conflict with the Ministry of Finance. The foundation believes that the ministry's drive to control makes it impossible for her to work and does not rule out going to court.

Yvonne HofsOctober 19, 2024, 4:22 PM

Princess Laurentien at the Golden Calves Gala. Image by Patrick van Ernst/Brunopress “Foundation for (Equal) Worthy Recovery is sounding the alarm,” reads above the letter that SGH prepared on Wednesday and sent to the Ministry of Finance a day later. The foundation, of which Princess Laurentien was the chairman until recently, lashes out at the ministry and — indirectly — also at responsible Secretary of State Nora Achahbar (Allowances, NSC). The foundation is currently processing 2,200 requests for help from parents who entrust SGH to handle their claim for compensation. According to the foundation, the processing of those applications came to a complete standstill after Achahbar tightened the conditions for the SGH approach in July. Since then, the ministry has been checking all claims calculations that SGH draws up, asking for more supporting documents than before. That is enormously delaying, says SGH.

Parents are far from always able to provide documents that they lost their jobs, had to sell their home or stopped their education as a result of the recovery of childcare benefits. The ministry wants to see evidence of this type of damage before agreeing to the calculated compensation. SGH finds this unreasonable, because such evidence would often no longer be available after ten or fifteen years.

Old wounds

This distrust of the victims also opens old wounds, says the foundation. After all, the origin of the scandal lies in the fact that the government wrongly suspected the victims of fraud. “We are asking for conclusive evidence that cannot be provided. Once again, receipts are placed above everything else,” the foundation complains in its angry letter.

Attorney Gerd van Atten, co-founder of SGH, believes that the ministry should be more flexible. If not, the foundation is considering filing a mass claim with the court on behalf of the affected parents. In response to the angry letter, Achahbar will talk to the foundation next week. Before this conversation, the ministry does not want to respond substantively to the complaint and the threat of a lawsuit.

Because every claim for damages that SGH submits to the ministry is now under discussion, the pace has completely changed. Princess Laurentien created the foundation precisely to smooth out the stalled recovery operation for the nearly 40 thousand victims of the benefits scandal.

She came up with an alternative method for calculating (im) material damage: the parent explains in her own words what suffering the benefits scandal has caused him or her. For each “damage” mentioned, the victim is awarded a fixed amount of pain. Possible damages include debts, illness due to stress, breakups, job loss, wage garnishment and evictions.

Good faith

During the trial period, parents were very satisfied with the SGH approach. In principle, the foundation assumed good faith and asked the parents for fewer supporting documents than the independent objection committee set up by the government, the Real Damage Commission (CWS). During the trial process, the foundation awarded parents an average of 128 thousand euros in compensation, almost three times as much as the CWS.

Because of these high compensation payments, Finance officials raised the alarm anonymously in May: the total costs of the recovery operation could therefore amount to 14 billion euros. That was 5 to 7 billion euros more than what the cabinet was counting on at the time.

An internal evaluation showed that the SGH did compensate parents very generously, and sometimes also for setbacks that had nothing to do with the benefits scandal. The cabinet therefore decided, with the consent of the House of Representatives, that the foundation could only continue its good work if the award conditions became stricter.

Princess Laurentien did not want to accept these restrictions and made it clear and loud. As a member of the Royal House, her political position was controversial. In August, she therefore resigned as chairman.