News item | 5/31/2023 | 19:09
The Benefits Service will focus more on services to make it easier to apply for benefits and to reduce the risk of errors. When errors are detected, they are corrected. Action will be taken against intentional non-compliance with the rules.
This is stated in the new enforcement strategy for the Benefits Service that State Secretary Aukje de Vries of Benefits and Customs sent to the House of Representatives today. The aim of the enforcement strategy is to find a balance between the service-providing activities and the activities that take place to combat fraud.
The vast majority of people want to comply with the rules and rightly apply for their allowance. Due to the complex laws and regulations, people sometimes make mistakes in their allowance applications. This often happens unconsciously or unintentionally. It is therefore important to distinguish between unconscious errors and intentional errors. In addition, it is important that applicants understand the rules. The starting point is that people should no longer get lost in the complicated schemes and that (high) recoveries must be prevented.
In addition, benefits must be prevented from being paid to people who are not (or no longer) entitled to them. Within the enforcement strategy, this requires a balance between trust in citizens and the prevention of (risks of) fraud, including an appropriate response. One of the steps that will be taken this year is the guaranteed and phased start of the intensive supervision process.
Personal support
The Benefits Service, together with municipalities and other organisations, wants to point out to people their right to benefits and encourage them to apply for a benefit. Whether someone is entitled to these allowances depends, among other things, on income, family composition and other personal circumstances. More than 5.7 million households currently use one or more benefits. Applying for a supplement is easy to arrange online. To make applying for an allowance easier and to reduce the risk of errors, the Toeslagen service is focusing more on personal support. People who have difficulty arranging online applications for or changes to their allowances can receive support. For example, at counters and support points or via a Supplement Service Point: a network of fixed intermediaries with which Supplements cooperates. This includes aid and service providers such as libraries, senior citizens’ unions, forms brigades, local senior citizens’ organizations and social counselors.