The term “fraud” is not allowed in the ICT System Participation Act

Municipalities must remove the term “fraud” from ICT systems as soon as possible if this term is linked or can be linked to a person under the Participation Act. This is the result of 2 rulings by the Rotterdam District Court.

VNG June 21, 2024

News press release

• fraud
• combating fraud
• ict
• participation law

The rulings are so important to municipalities that the Court has decided to publish them. Because there is no longer an appeal, we are now informing all municipalities and suppliers. The court ruled in December 2023 that fraud is a qualification that is not allowed under the GDPR, because the concept of fraud does not appear in the Participation Act and other social security laws. The court acknowledges that municipalities, for example, must register violations of the obligation to provide information in order to enforce the Participation Act. This requires the processing of personal data. But according to the court, it is undesirable, unnecessary and therefore unlawful to use the term fraud. This qualification goes beyond what is strictly necessary and that is contrary to the principle of minimal data processing.

What do you need to do?

The VNG informed all municipal ICT suppliers about the statements and asked them to adapt the ICT systems insofar as they include the term fraud by default. But municipalities that have themselves added the term fraud to ICT systems and processes for implementing the Participation Act must change that term themselves if it can be linked to a person. For example, this includes:

• field names;
• tab names;
• table codes;
• titles of lists, graphs and/or tables;
• process names;
• files;
• forms.

Also not allowed, for example:

• use of the term fraud in the file of a social assistance recipient;
• a print with the title fraud report that also includes a resident's details;
• a list with the title fraud claims and the names of social assistance recipients.

Instead of the term fraud, you can use qualifications such as “breach of duty to provide information”, “concealed income” or “declaration of incorrect primary residence”.

Names of departments and functions

The court's ruling does not concern the names of systems, organizations or employees, such as “fraud hotline”, “fraud investigation department” or “fraud and prevention officer”. However, we recommend that you avoid the term fraud as much as possible and change names, because the term is often seen as unwanted and too heavy these days. Completely avoiding the use of the term fraud also helps prevent this term from being accidentally used in places where it is not allowed.

National ICT systems

In the rulings, the court ordered it to do what is necessary to ensure that the qualifying fraud is also removed from Suwinet. The VNG has therefore contacted the Intelligence Bureau and BKWI. There have also been discussions with the CBS about the BUS and BDFS statistics. All parties immediately made all the necessary adjustments or initiated the adjustment process.