News item | 15-07-2022 | 4:00 pm
Efforts will continue unabated to provide clarity to parents and to improve the process of the recovery operation. This is stated in the 11th progress report on childcare allowance that State Secretary for Finance De Vries (Supplies and Customs) has sent to the House of Representatives.
More than 55,000 people have reported as possible victims to the Implementing Organization for Recovery of Allowances (UHT). For most of them (about 52,000) a first test has been done. About 26,000 of the applicants turned out to be victims of the problems with the childcare allowance. For nearly 14,300 applications, UHT has performed the integral or accelerated assessment or the parent has waived further assessment.
State Secretary De Vries: “A lot of work has already been done, but we are not there yet. We see that there are still bottlenecks in the recovery process. That is why we continue to look for possible improvements in the recovery operation.”
VSO, mediation and debt repayment counter
This summer there will be a pilot with settlement agreements, in which agreements with affected parents are recorded.
State Secretary De Vries: “In the conversations I have with affected parents, the wish often arises to conclude the recovery process with a settlement agreement. If the pilot is successful, such an agreement can be concluded with more parents.”
It is also being investigated whether (some of the) objection cases can be resolved through mediation.
Debts that fell within the debt settlement of the recovery operation will be reimbursed. However, there are duped parents who have paid off these debts with the amount of compensation they received. Parents are also expected to be able to turn to Sociale Banken Nederland (SBN) for these debts from the end of September. They assess whether victims can get back the amount that they have paid off with compensation.
Legislation
At the end of June, the cabinet sent the bill for recovery operation allowances to the House of Representatives. In addition to the existing schemes, the bill also includes a number of new schemes, such as the child scheme. This ensures that children of affected parents also receive financial support.
The bill also contains a scheme for victims of health care allowance, housing allowance or child budget. In addition, the bill regulates, among other things, support for parents abroad and determines which data must be shared for the recovery process.
Ex-partner arrangement
Former benefit partners of affected applicants have in many cases also suffered from the problems with the childcare benefit, both emotionally and materially. The cabinet also wants to offer them support. An additional law is currently being worked on to regulate this properly.
Bottlenecks
Affected parents with additional damage can turn to the Actual Damage Commission (CWS) after the assessment of their application and compensation. We are currently looking at how this process should be tightened up, as improvements are possible and necessary.
If UHT does not comply with the statutory decision periods in the recovery process, victims can declare UHT in default and lodge an appeal with the court for failing to make a timely decision. In recent months, the number of notices of default (12,500 to date) and late appeals (843 to date) have increased.
These appeals mean that it is increasingly possible to start the assessment based on the order of registration at UHT, because priority must be given to the files where a court decision has been made about the decision period. Urgent files will continue to be given priority. It is expected that from August all assessment capacity will be deployed for urgent cases and cases in which the judge says that a decision must be made. In the meantime, UHT continues to look for opportunities to improve and accelerate the processes.
Many affected parents would like to know what is in their file and UHT must provide files for decisions. The department at UHT that anonymizes these files – what is required by the GDPR – and provides them cannot meet the current demand. The progress report describes a number of practical measures to shorten waiting times.
Parents central
The interests of the victims are central to the entire recovery operation. Discussions are held with parents, young people and children about how they can be offered emotional recovery. As experts by experience, parents are also involved in Fellowship Contact, where parents can tell their story or ask for help.
In addition, contact with parents during the processing of their file is improved, for example by using a three-way meeting in which the municipality, UHT and parent discuss the needs of parents during the recovery process.
We also look at where the role of the personal case handler can be improved or expanded, for example in providing information with the aim of giving parents faster, better and more insight into the compensation awarded.