"Many children in the Benefit Affair do not get their debts repaid"

Financial compensation for the children of victims of the performance scandal falls short. They receive a one-off amount, but their debts are not paid off or forgiven. There is a risk that creditors will seize the compensation. This is the conclusion of the Children’s Ombudsman of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and the Youth Ombudsman of The Hague in an opinion piece for NRC extension.

The Tax and Customs Administration distributes a so-called children’s scheme: an allowance for the children of the victims, because “even children and young people have been deceived”. Depending on their age, they receive between 2,000 and 10,000 euros.

But just like their parents, the child sponsors write, some of these children have also fallen into debt. For example, there are young people “who have borrowed the maximum from DUO to be able to do the shopping or to help settle their debts with the tax authorities”. There are parents who have placed the energy supplier’s contract in the name of their adult child, “because they themselves risked being cut off”.

Unlike their parents, those debts have not yet been paid or forgiven. “Those young people have been in trouble for years,” says Stans Goudsmit, Rotterdam’s children’s ombudsman. “We have to help them with those debts.” He advocates “safe money”: a “pause button” to temporarily keep creditors at bay, so they can’t snatch up the settlement. Regulations have been set up in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, but such a “nationwide” pause button should exist, according to the ombudsmen.

“Parents feel guilty”

Goudsmit says the lack of such a scheme is causing unrest among the victims. “Parents feel guilty towards their children. They say: until my son can’t go on, neither can I.”

According to State Secretary Aukje de Vries (Indemnity, VVD), “probably around 90,000 children” are eligible for the children’s programme, according to her explanation on the website. It is unclear how many of them are in debt. When asked if the program has solved the children’s financial problems, he replies: “I don’t believe it, I don’t think we can fix everything. It is really intended as a helping hand for children.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives adopted a motion stipulating that the government will make arrangements with municipalities to help these young people pay off their debts.