Dutch cabinet mulls resignation after thousands of families wrongly accused of benefit fraud

PM Mark Rutte has been in power throughout the scandal, which started in the early years of the 2010s

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The Dutch cabinet will on Friday decide whether to collectively resign over a scandal in which thousands of families were driven to financial ruin after being wrongly accused of benefit fraud.

Some 20,000 families either had their child-care benefits cut or were forced to pay back every cent they had ever claimed, sometimes over small administrative errors in their paperwork.

Dual-nationality families were subject to particular scrutiny, it has emerged.

A parliamentary inquiry last month declared that the tax office had carried out an “unprecedented injustice”, with the scandal stretching over much of the past decade.

Around 10,000 families will receive at least €30,000 in compensation each —  a total of more than €300m.

Mark Rutte, prime minister since 2010, is under increasing pressure to resign after the leader of an opposition party  stood down on Thursday over his role in the affair.

Labour leader Lodewijk Asscher was social affairs minister in a past coalition government led by Mr Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.

If the cabinet decides to resign on Friday — which is considered unlikely as the Netherlands battles surging coronavirus rates — then Mr Rutte could lead a caretaker government until elections in March 2022. 

He has described the affair as “shameful.”

Meanwhile, 20 families have filed charges against five politicians including finance minister Wopke Hoekstra for criminal negligence.

“People have been ruined, accused, lost their houses: it is so serious that this is criminal,” their lawyer Vasco Groeneveld told The Telegraph.

Roger Derikx, 49, a chef from Hoofdorp, said politicians must be held accountable.

“I had to pay around €60,000 back for daycare for our two boys from 2006 to 2009, and when the system throws you up, they put you on a secret black list,” he said.

“If you have a salary, the tax office can take money out. I earned €2,000 and they took €800, they came to our door, they took our car, our computer, the television and the washing machine.

“My wife and I divorced, the tax office contacted my business’s clients and I was thrown away. They took everything away from us,” he said.

Kristie Rongen, 45, from Leliestad, was told to pay back €92,000 for childcare claimed for her three children and was labelled a fraudster.

“I was isolated, I didn’t work for two years, I had to have psychiatric help and my youngest daughter threatened to commit suicide,” she said.

“Sometimes I had to send my children to bed with just bread and butter and I was almost thrown out of my house. What we parents want is for Rutte to go, and not to come back. He let the ball drop and it is a scandal.”

MP Renske Leijten, who has been campaigning on the affair for three years in parliament, said the government must take responsibility. “It went wrong, but it wasn’t repaired, it was covered up, and the people who need support from government were punished for nothing,” she said. “This is so big that our government needs to say: never again.”