NOS
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 17:39
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Real Police
editor Economics
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Bart Kamphuis
Economics reporter
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Real Police
editor Economics
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Bart Kamphuis
Economics reporter
Benefits that need to be repaid have become an increasingly important source of problematic debt. The number of households with debts resulting from benefits has increased significantly in the past five years. That appears from Numbers from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
At the beginning of this year, more than 726,000 households were struggling with problematic debts. The Benefits Department was the creditor in one fifth of these. In 2018 that was about one in ten. This means that in five years, approximately 80,000 additional households have had benefit debts.
This concerns families who have to repay benefits. This could be rent allowance or healthcare allowance, but also child-related budget or childcare allowance. If a household has not repaid the debt after 27 months, the debt is labeled as problematic by Statistics Netherlands statisticians.
Corona and higher wages
The Benefits Department sees two explanations for the increase. The first is the corona crisis. At that time, the collection of benefits was temporarily stopped, due to the financial insecurity of many people. As a result, the number of households with long-term debt increased.
“This involved a total of more than 1 million citizens who have a total of approximately 1 billion euros in payment arrears,” says a spokesperson. The collection started again step by step in April last year. However, the number of households with problematic benefit debt also increased last year.
According to the spokesperson, this may be due to the unexpectedly high wage increases in 2022. “This has led to an increase in recoveries, especially for housing allowance,” the spokesperson said. “It remains important that people who are entitled to benefits keep their details, and therefore their income, up to date and report any changes. This way they can prevent unexpected refunds.”
Achilles heel
The fact that citizens themselves are responsible for reporting changes to income and other data has provoked criticism from experts. “It is the Achilles heel of the benefits system,” says Anna Custers, lecturer in poverty interventions at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
“Families with lower incomes in particular are more likely to have to deal with fluctuating incomes and therefore run an increased risk of refunds. They do not always get around to reporting every fluctuation in income immediately.”
NOS / Yvonne Witte
“A call from the Benefits Service is not sufficient. The large scale on which the arrears occur shows that the system is overcharging many citizens,” says Nadja Jungmann, lecturer in debt and debt collection at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and special professor at the University of Amsterdam. .
“In this high-tech society, you would expect that the Tax Authorities should be able to set up a system through payroll taxes in which employers inform the Tax Authorities and they can immediately adjust the allowances,” says Jungmann.
Custers fears that backlogs could continue to increase. “The increase in allowances this year, and also next year in, for example, the housing allowance and the child-related budget, can unfortunately also mean that recoveries will be higher again if something is not passed on in time.”
Traffic fines and student debt
The number of households with debts to the tax authorities also increased relatively significantly in the past five years. About 45 percent of households with problematic debts now owe the tax authorities. In 2018 that was still 32 percent. In absolute numbers, this means that more than 100,000 households have become indebted to the Tax Authorities.
Improvements can be seen in other services. For example, fewer households have a debt as a result of an unpaid traffic fine. The same applies to households where one of the family members cannot pay off their student debt.
Have you run into problems yourself due to payment arrears with benefits, and would you like to share your story? Please email gidi.pols@nos.nl
2023-12-13 16:39:34
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