Benefits agency UWV reverses 703 fines issued based on unlawfully obtained data. These are punishments that the organization handed out with the help of a controversial ‘risk scan’ for detecting unemployment benefit fraud by people abroad.
This system itself was shut down in February. The Dutch Data Protection Authority, among others, found that this method did not comply with European privacy rules.
The ‘risk scan for stays outside the Netherlands’ consisted of an algorithm for detecting people with unemployment benefits who were staying abroad, because to be entitled to such benefits you must in principle live in the Netherlands. But the UWV went way too far. For example, the service collected data about IP addresses in a way that was legally prohibited, UWV confirmed in July after reports from NOS.
UWV must now reverse hundreds of fines, because all cases involving benefit fraud must be treated equally. This while there was a group whose case had already been closed and had received a punishment, but also a group whose case had not yet been closed when UWV stopped using the detection method. To comply with this requirement of equal treatment, all decisions based on the prohibited risk scan have been reversed.
In addition to repaying fines, UWV may also reinstate discontinued benefits. The agency also reverses warnings.