News item | 29-09-2023 | 2:45 PM
The measures that the government has taken in recent months to improve the Recovery Operation Allowances are accelerating the integrated assessments. The implementation of the child scheme and the debt approach are also going well. In addition, an alternative route was started last week for affected parents with additional damage, which will give them clarity more quickly about the financial completion of their recovery.
This is stated in the progress report on Recovery Operation Allowances that State Secretary De Vries of Allowances and Customs sent to the House of Representatives after the Council of Ministers. Up to and including August, 65,000 people have registered as possible victims with the Implementation Organization for Recovery Allowances. A total of 31,200 parents have now been recognized as victims. From the moment of registration, parents are entitled to support from the municipality where they live. Parents who have been identified as victims will receive 30,000 euros within a few weeks. In addition, debts are paused and tackled and public debts are cancelled.
Acceleration
The Implementation Organization for Recovery of Allowances (UHT) has focused on accelerating the number of integrated assessments. The integrated assessment has now been completed for 44% of the parents (almost 28,600). UHT is still on track to complete 57,000 comprehensive assessments in the first quarter of 2025. To accelerate and improve the handling of additional damage, an alternative damage route has been started in addition to the customized route at the Actual Damage Commission (CWS). This new route is intended to be less stressful and to give parents more control. In addition, the cabinet recently decided to make a number of adjustments to the CWS in order to shorten waiting times and improve the committee’s working methods.
Child arrangement
The implementation of the child scheme is going well. More than 75,500 children and young people have received a letter and the amount has now been transferred to more than 66,300 of them. In addition to this amount, children and young people are entitled to broad support from their municipality. Part of this is tackling debt. Specifically for adult young people with problematic debts, we are working together with municipalities, NVVK, VNG and the Youth Perspective Fund on a special offer for debt assistance. 34.5 million euros are available for this. The approach to parental debt is also progressing well. The government expects that 90% of all debts of victims will have been settled by the end of this year.
Objection handling
By involving parents more closely in the process, the government wants to prevent parents from feeling the need to object as much as possible. In addition, we have worked hard in recent months to handle objection cases more efficiently. To this end, the expertise of the Objections Advisory Committee is used in a more targeted manner and the UHT is working on scaling up and further professionalizing the organization. The current labor market conditions make it difficult to find suitable legally trained personnel. This means that the forecast to handle all objections by the end of 2026 is under pressure. An external assessment of the plans to accelerate objection handling shows that additional measures are needed to achieve the goals. For example, the process steps must be further simplified and the UHT’s working method must be strengthened.