News item | 23-01-2024 | 2:15 PM
The UWV and the SVB are working on more personal and proactive services. For example, the UWV recently established a special Money Care Team that supports people with financial problems and is also alert to psychological problems. And the SVB is working to bring its services closer to residents by opening physical municipal counters. The organizations pay more attention to unintentional errors, for example when applying for benefits, where trust is the norm. The UWV and the SVB also face challenges in implementation. At the UWV, the services provided to people who receive a social-medical assessment are under pressure. At the SVB, international implementation takes up a lot of capacity. This is what Minister Van Gennip (Social Affairs and Employment) and Minister Schouten (Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions) write in their report on the implementation of social security.
The SVB attaches great importance to personal, accessible and proactive services. For example, SVB employees provide local assistance and information at municipal counters about, among other things, AOW and child benefit. The UWV’s ambition is that people who use its services feel seen, heard and helped. An example of this is assigning a permanent contact person for people with unemployment benefits. In addition, the UWV and the SVB consider it important, in view of their social task, to properly refer to professional assistance in case of psychological problems, for example due to problematic debts. Both organizations have guidelines and instructions for this. At the UWV it is a permanent part of training for employees with customer contact. The UWV, in collaboration with 113, has completed a successful pilot with the Money Care Team. In this pilot, where necessary, an anonymous connection was made to a care provider during the conversation. This working method will become a standard part of the services provided by the Money Care Team.
Challenges in service delivery
At the UWV, the services provided to people who receive a social-medical assessment have been under pressure for some time. This assessment is necessary to determine a disability benefit. The supply of the number of insurance doctors does not currently match the demand for the number of (re)assessments, which means people have to wait too long. Over the past two years, the government has therefore taken several measures to stabilize and reduce the mismatch. Such as the simplified WIA claim assessment for people over 60 and the UWV setting up social-medical centers. In addition, the cabinet has asked the OCTAS committee to issue advice for the longer term. OCTAS will soon provide advice on a sustainable system for illness and disability that is affordable, feasible and explainable.
At the SVB, international implementation takes up a lot of capacity. This concerns, for example, determining an AOW benefit for people who have worked in the Netherlands, but now live abroad. Checking this must be done manually, while the number of people who live or have lived abroad is increasing. In addition, both implementing organizations must implement extensive changes to their ICT systems, while services continue. This can put a brake on new (policy) developments and adjustments. Various recovery actions also require additional capacity from UWV and SVB.
Status of implementation
With the Status of Implementation report, the Senate and House of Representatives are informed twice a year about what is going on in the implementation of social security. In order to meet the challenges within social security, it is important that implementing organizations, policy and politics continue to work together to improve and simplify the social security system. The Status of Implementation helps with this by providing insight into developments and challenges within the system.