Duped parents in the allowance affair wonder how long it will take before they get their lives in order. In an open letter, the ‘parent panel’ complains about what they believe is much too slow processing. Fidelity writes about the letter and publish it in its entirety. The parent panel was established in 2020 by then State Secretary Van Huffelen of Finance and provides solicited and unsolicited advice.
The direct reason for the letter is that a financial allowance for children will not be opened until the end of this year at the earliest, later than previously assumed. The parents write that they are “tired, angry and exhausted”. According to them, their task is too heavy and they are “despondent, depressed and also terribly angry”.
They come with a laundry list of complaints. But with the postponement of the compensation for the children, “the string snaps and the bomb bursts”, the parents write. According to the open letter, most parents find the recovery for their children even more important than the recovery for themselves: “This hurts, it hurts so bad”.
‘Trust broken again and again’
The signatories complain that their fragile trust is being broken again and again: “When will the system finally realize that it was the system that made this mistake, and that that system can’t be part of the solution?”
The Benefits affair has been dragging on for years and revolves around the fact that many parents were wrongly seen as fraudsters, as a result of which they sometimes had to repay large amounts to the tax authorities that they had received as an allowance for the care of their children. An interrogation committee from the House of Representatives published a hard-hitting report a year and a half ago, and a short time later the Rutte III cabinet offered its resignation as a result of the affair.
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