“IMG criticizes cabinet’s measure to speed up damage settlement in Groningen earthquake area”

A well-intentioned measure by the cabinet to speed up damage settlement in the Groningen earthquake area hardly yields anything for the most affected residents. In addition, the measure will result in new “undesirable” differences in the handling of all claims.

This is what the Institute for Mining Damage Groningen (IMG) writes in a critical letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte and State Secretary for Mining Hans Vijlbrief. “An unacceptable outcome that leads to dissatisfaction,” said the IMG, which, as an independent governing body, has been handling all damage caused by earthquakes, subsidence and rise since 2020.

The cabinet made 13.5 billion euros available at the end of April to pay off ‘the debt of honor’ to Groningen. One of the most striking measures is that any earthquake damage under 40,000 euros will simply be compensated. No discussion about the cause, “no more procession of experts and stacking of reports”, according to the cabinet in the recovery package New beginning, on the way to recognition, recovery and perspective.

But the IMG expects problems. “This measure will indeed lead to higher fees, fewer rejections and less hassle for many applicants,” said chairman Henk Korvinus at RTV North. “But the most affected group of victims, who often live in the core of the area, are not helped with this measure.”

The biggest problem is that in many cases the residents in the core of the area have reported damage before – and that the damage report has often already been dealt with. The IMG has handled a total of 200,000 damage reports in recent years. In a number of cases there was major earthquake damage and more than 100,000 euros were compensated, in other cases the compensation was limited to a few thousand euros. It also regularly happened that after extensive investigation by experts, the claim was partially or completely rejected.

And then, according to the IMG, the cabinet wants to pay compensation of up to 40,000 euros “without hassle” to residents who now report damage. According to Korvinus, these include people who live on the edge of the earthquake area “who have never noticed earthquakes and who have not reported any damage”.

In the letter, the IMG urges that ‘the 40,000-euro measure’ be introduced retroactively, so that the most affected victims can still benefit from it. But it should actually be completely different, says the Institute. Instead of handing out a bag of money, the IMG wants contractors to go to damaged homes and actually repair all damage there. Although that plan also needs to be worked out, the IMG thinks that this will “reduce inequality, damage will actually be repaired and implementation costs will be lower”.