News item | 06-04-2022 | 09:53
The cabinet wants the Information Points Digital Government to receive 20.95 million annually on a structural basis. The Information Points are physical counters where people can go with questions about, for example, tax returns, DigiD or applying for benefits. The Information Points also guide people to courses in digital skills. From next year, the cabinet wants the post to become structural.
State Secretary for Digitization, Alexandra van Huffelen considers the Information Points essential: “Although digitization can make government affairs easier, it is still important that people can go somewhere to be helped. The Netherlands has approximately four million people who find it difficult to manage their government affairs digitally. It is especially important for them to keep the barrier between them and the government as small as possible.”
In 2019, then State Secretary Knops started with 15 digital information points. The Netherlands now has 450 digital Information Points in libraries. The information points are located throughout the Netherlands in neighborhoods and city centers where libraries are located. Sometimes the employees know how to help immediately, sometimes they know how to refer them to the right implementing organization. More than 36,000 questions in total have already been asked at the counters. The extra money is needed to keep the counters open longer, to continue training employees and to connect new government services. Finally, the money will be used to experiment with new types of locations, for example district and neighborhood centers and care institutions.