Four out of five Amsterdammers

Four out of five Amsterdam community workers saw the benefits affair coming, but were unable to interveneMany debt counseling professionals or neighborhood teams already realized before the revelation of the benefits affair that Amsterdammers were getting into trouble as a result. But they were sent from cabinet to wall and still distrust the government.Tahrim RamdjanApril 5, 2023, 5:54 PM

Parents affected by the allowance affair.BEELD ANPDAT concluded researchers from the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University and Hogeschool Utrecht in a report published on Wednesday, commissioned by the Amsterdam city council. We looked at how professionals in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Almere experience laws and regulations that can put people in a bind financially and mentally. For example, the municipality wants to know how it can better help its citizens. 101 Amsterdam professionals completed a questionnaire, including employees of the municipality's Work, Participation and Income Department, debt counselors and community workers.Significantly higher number55 percent of professionals saw, even before the benefits affair came to light, that Amsterdammers were facing high recoveries. Among neighborhood team employees, this is 80 percent. More than 5,000 Amsterdam parents have reported to the municipality as victims of the benefits scandal since 2021. About 15 to 20 are added per month. The number is considerably higher than expected: the tax authorities assumed 1700 Amsterdam victims. They say they sounded the alarm at the tax office of the tax authorities, but they received zero response. For some, the service did not respond at all; for the other, an employee indicated that he was also up against walls internally. “We did write angry letters and letters of fire,” says a professional, “but that didn't help much. So at some point, you think it doesn't work.” Some community workers blame themselves for not acting persistently enough in addressing the high recoveries. One out of three professionals does not know if Amsterdam has a method or policy when it comes to addressing “difficult situations”. A third party — partly due to the benefits affair — also has no confidence that anything will be done if restrictive laws or rules are raised.DiscussionsComplex situations are discussed by professionals in so-called “case discussions” with their colleagues, but these vary by department or team and, according to professionals, are very focused on individuals. According to the researchers, that should be different: focusing more on structural problems that recur, and more consultation with other afdelingen.Dat, Amsterdam is already doing a large extent. In their response to the report, aldermen Marjolein Moorman (Poverty) and Rutger Groot Wassink (Social Affairs) point to the “Amsterdam Customized Method”, introduced four years ago, where professionals work across departmental boundaries. Work and Income employees are trained, as are neighborhood and parent and child teams. This also focuses on the “reverse test”, with a legal test later. Discussions about restrictive laws and rules should also be more structural, now that money from the government has been released for that.Around 263 cases of reported benefit parents have been labeled “complex” by the municipality of Amsterdam, appeared before. Special “breakthrough teams” have been set up for this. The aldermen expect to be busy with broad support for families throughout the college period. Extra attention is paid to the children of affected parents, around 6,600, two-thirds of whom are minors. “With the recommendations from this study, we can better help our residents if they get into trouble,” says alderman Moorman. “They should not get stuck or affected by errors in laws and regulations.”