News item | 21-06-2022 | 20:38
Victimized parents who live abroad receive support to get their lives back on track, just like affected parents in the Netherlands. Parents can contact the support team for parents abroad for this. State Secretary Aukje de Vries (Supplies and Customs) has informed the House about this.
As part of the recovery operation for childcare allowance, the affected parents are compensated and supported by the cabinet. In addition to compensation, cancellation of public debts and dealing with private debts, affected parents in the Netherlands can also turn to their municipality for support. Because aggrieved parents abroad cannot go to a municipality for support, the support team will take care of this for those parents.
Broad support abroad
The broad support focuses on 5 areas of life: family, health, finances, work & income and living. This was not yet possible for affected parents and their family members abroad, although they are covered by the recovery schemes. The support team can provide help to parents abroad themselves, for example in working out what the parent and family members need for recovery, compiling a debt list for the private debt counter of SBN and in looking for appropriate help. In addition to its own support, the support team can also deploy external support. This can be in the form of help or care or in practical form. The agreements about support are laid down in an action plan together with the parent.
Return to the Netherlands
If there is a wish to return to the Netherlands, the support team can also assist parents abroad in preparing for return. For parents who want to return to the Netherlands, the travel costs will be reimbursed. The frameworks for this will be further elaborated in the coming months.
950 parents abroad
About 950 parents have now been duped abroad. They live in more than 40 different countries, about half of which are in Belgium and Germany. These parents go through the same process as parents in the Netherlands: a first test and possibly an integral assessment by UHT. If it is established that they have been duped, they will receive 30,000 euros in compensation. From the end of June, UHT will call the affected parents abroad to ask whether they need support so that UHT can share data from parents with the support team for parents abroad. OTB will then contact these parents. Local support is available within the support team for parents abroad (from Curaçao) for victims of parents in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Since May, help has been offered to victims of parents in the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius) through the Tax Authorities of the Dutch Caribbean.