News item | 31-03-2022 | 17:59
Since the start of the corona pandemic in March 2020, the collection of allowance debts has been stopped to prevent people from getting into further financial problems. Now that all corona measures have been suspended, it is important that the collection of excess benefits received is restarted to prevent payment arrears from piling up. This also happens from mid-April.
State Secretary Aukje de Vries (Supplies and Customs) informs the House of Representatives about this. In total, this concerns more than 1 million citizens who have payment arrears totaling approximately 1 billion euros. State Secretary Aukje de Vries (Allowances):
“It is important that payment arrears do not increase further. Having to pay too many benefits received again can have a significant impact. That is why we work carefully and there are generous payment arrangements for those who need it”.
Parents affected by the allowance affair who have reported to the Implementation Organization for Recovery of Allowances (UHT) will not be involved in the start-up. For them, the collection remains on hold, at least as long as their case is being handled by the UHT.
Payment arrangement
Due to the long pause of two years due to corona, many people will not know that one or more claims are still outstanding. Those involved will therefore first receive a pre-announcement containing an overview of the outstanding amounts. After that, they receive an offer with the standard payment arrangement of two years to repay everything. It is possible to make a personal payment arrangement if the financial situation so requires. This can be requested via a simplified form on the website or with the help of employees of the Tax Information Line.
During the start-up, the government intends not to charge any (statutory) recovery interest, so as not to create an additional barrier to repayment. A proposal for this will be submitted to Parliament.
phasing
In order to be able to help everyone as best as possible – with the application for a personal payment arrangement, for example – the collection will take place in phases. The first letters are sent to citizens with debts that are fairly recent, built up from 2020 and younger. This concerns approximately 775,000 citizens. Citizens with the highest recoveries will be proactively called, even before they receive the first pre-notification letter, to inform them about the restart and to answer questions about their situation.
The cabinet wants to inform as many people as possible about the upcoming collection. This is done, among other things, through articles in free local papers and by actively informing stakeholders such as municipalities, administrators and legal counters.