The compensation of a large part of the victims of the benefits affair will take longer than originally expected, State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Finance) wrote to the Lower House on Tuesday. The reason is that “really helping duped parents to get their lives back on track appears to be more complex than previously thought”.
The payment of the first group of 108 parents was successful in July, Van Huffelen writes, but the lesson that has been learned is that it takes much longer to process the cases properly.
According to the State Secretary, the recovery organization has not yet been set up in such a way that the hoped-for speed and care can be achieved. The intention was that large numbers of parents would be reassessed in September, but according to Van Huffelen, given the complexity, it is “irresponsible” to scale up broadly.
Priority is now being given to the treatment of parents in distressing or very complex situations. The State Secretary is still investigating what other options could be. This includes partial instead of full assessment, for example, so that parents can already receive a first payment.
The first group received amounts ranging from EUR 1,300 to EUR 41,587 in July. This involves a total amount of more than 1.2 million euros.
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