Duped parents

Allowance parents: let scientists see if our children can return home

Many parents and children affected by the benefits affair are still separated. They want the University of Groningen to review their files again.

Marten van de Wier and Eva StamApril 4, 2025, 4:24 PM

Parents affected by the benefits affair and whose children were removed by the government want an independent scientific investigation into their files. This should answer the question of how thousands of children were able to be separated from their parents. In an opinion piece in allegiance they are calling on the cabinet to commission the University of Groningen for such a study. They hope that can help them reunite with their children.

Children's judge and researcher Bart Tromp would like to carry out such an investigation. Tromp and his colleagues cannot decide whether a child can go back to their parents, but they can provide parents with an analysis of their file that allows them to go to court themselves.

Despite all the previous studies and reports, many affected parents still have to miss their children. In the affair, at least 3,532 children were forcibly removed from home, as the Hamer Commission concluded last week. There are probably many more, especially if the removals that took place in consultation with the parents, but often also under pressure from youth care, are also included.

'Tens of thousands of children may still be separated from parents'

Jurgen Deceuninck, one of the allowance parents behind the letter, thinks tens of thousands of children may still not be reunited with their parents. Some of them are still underage. Deceuninck is one of the few allowance parents who do have parental authority back, his children aged 10 and 11.

But it's not just about legal recovery, he insists. With both minor and adult children, the government must make an effort to repair the relationship between parents and child. “Children have suffered trauma as a result of being relocated: trauma in their relationships with their parents and personal trauma,” says Deceuninck.

“We want to know who is responsible for what”

The parents are pleased that the Hamer Commission concluded last week that the benefits affair played a role in all relocations. But it's not enough, they think. “Parties are now pointing to each other, and wash their hands innocently. We want to know who is responsible for what,” says Deceuninck.

They will only find out through a multidisciplinary study, according to the parents, with experts in the fields of youth care, law and (mental) health, for example. In addition, they want that all records of parents who want to be audited, that's how they write.

That takes a lot of time, Deceuninck acknowledges. “But it shouldn't stand still in the meantime. While the researchers are at work, you can also start reassessing the files right away.”

Tromp has already designed a study that was canceled.

Researcher and judge Tromp already designed a research design for rapid file research together with colleagues in 2022. That ultimately did not happen, but the affected parents would still like to see this carried out in an adapted form.

Hamer's report shows that the youth counselors and judges often did not see that parents' problems were caused by their money shortage due to all the unjustified recoveries from the tax authorities. Tromp thinks his research can better clarify exactly how that could happen.

Scientific research does not automatically lead to reunification, Tromp emphasizes. “We can analyse whether there is a debt problem in a file.” With that analysis, parents can go to court for a new review of their case. Tromp thinks that, based on that extra information, judges “can and dare to decide” more than is currently the case. “I also think that parents have a right to that.”

Also read:

Allowance parents: Report- Hamer is one thing, but where is the reunion with our children?

The Hamer Commission report is not over for allowance parents with children who are away from home. The House should order to try to restore family situations, they argue. Read their opinion piece here.

Benefits affair shows that youth care ignores poverty when moving a child out of home

For many children who were removed from home in the benefits affair, their sudden financial distress was the deciding factor, says the Hamer Commission. What does her report say about how youth counselors deal with families in poverty?