The woman is a victim of the Surcharge scandal, in which families were wrongly put away as fraudsters and sometimes had to repay tens of thousands of euros in childcare allowance. In order to keep their heads above water financially, they and many others approached, for example, colleagues and friends and family, often resulting in considerable debts.
The woman in this case used to work as a legal secretary at a law firm. In 2019, the problems grew her over her head due to the allowance scandal and she threatened to be turned off her house. She asked her former leadership for a loan, who agreed and made a total of more than 25,000 euros.
When she received 30,000 euros in compensation from the government a few months later, she paid her debt immediately. She then submitted a request to get the same amount back from the government. But that was rejected because, according to the minister, only loans are compensated from companies that ‘have lending as a core activity’. That was not the case at the law firm. Moreover, according to the minister, the agreements about the loans were not sufficiently black-and-white.
The court does not agree with that. The starting point for victims of the allowance scandal must not be ‘on all snails (too) much legal salt’. According to the court, the situation of the victims is ‘the result of unlawful action’ of the government. Moreover, there is enough evidence in this case that there was indeed a loan. The minister must, including the costs of the proceedings, also reimburse this, the ruling is.