“We asked for bottles of water from the neighbors because we were closed. We had to defecate in sandwich bags and heated water on the stone grill to wash ourselves,” says an older teen. Another: “It becomes normal at some point. My friends had food and I made excuses or said I wasn’t hungry.” A third: “I took my braces off my teeth with pincers because there was no more money for ortho.”
It is a selection of the stories of 114 children, teenagers and young adults that the agency Diversion recorded about their experiences with the Benefits Affair. The report Know us, help us was commissioned by the Ministry of Finance, which is now considering a ‘child scheme’ for tens of thousands of children whose parents found themselves in financial trouble because the government incorrectly labeled them as fraudsters. It will be announced shortly what the child scheme entails.
The stress that the fines, reminders, bailiff’s visits and seizure of the account caused at home affected the youth of these children, as is clear from the report. Some parents collapsed, others lost their job, ended up on unemployment benefits and later on social assistance or debt restructuring. Other parents separated. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, between 2015 and 2021 According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 1,675 ‘allowance children’ were passed on between 2015 and 2021 removed from home by Child Protection.
To the ATM as soon as possible
One young adult recalls: “It still affects my daily life so much today: I’ve been the mother of the house since I was 10 years old. (…) I also work six days a week, sometimes double shifts. To pay off debts. My future has been taken away from me, I would like to pass that on to the government. That they stand still.”
Another relates: “My mother’s payments came on a specific day each month. We were then ready to go to the ATM: we had to withdraw all the money from the account as quickly as possible in order to buy food. Sometimes we were too late, then the money was already gone. Issued to the tax authorities.”
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Money alone is not enough, according to the report and the recommendations. Individual help and individual recognition is what these children ask from the government. According to them, a generic amount and a website for everyone, with tips and suggestions, is not enough. The children would like to have a ‘financial doctor’ to whom they can go and who is independent: ‘They can pay for it, but I don’t want anything to do with them anymore. Soon I will be on hold for hours again, like at the tax authorities.” They are, according to all the testimonies, afraid of the government and afraid of money.
‘I was very on my own, also because I was being bullied. I didn’t talk about anything. Not even with teachers, because of the problems at home’
contempt
The loneliness that many children experienced because their parents had so many problems is also reflected in the report: “I was very private, also because I was being bullied. I didn’t talk about anything. Not even with teachers, because of the problems at home. There were threats to evict us, so that fear played a part. In the end you keep everything to yourself and you are no longer open about anything.” Another says: “I was pissed off at school, misunderstood and seen as aggressive. I just couldn’t tell how things were going at home.”
Others report that they began to despise their parents: “I didn’t take my mother seriously for a long time. When we ran out of water for two weeks in the winter because my mother couldn’t pay the bill, I was angry and stopped taking her seriously. Rutte’s letter changed this [veel gedupeerde gezinnen kregen vorig jaar een excuusbrief van premier Rutte] but also made me sad. I’ve been mad at my mother half my life, that’s decisive and difficult to get over.”
Bureau Diversion states that the children in any case do not want „’harsh help’. They do not want help from Youth Care or administrators. And they say they don’t want consequences if they don’t follow advice. They want free help. For example, from a mentor: ‘I want someone who is really there for me, with no other interests.’ That is possible, according to the interviewed children. “best digitally too”.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 20, 2022