A thunderous thump has once again shaken the already creaking foundation of the Benefits Scandal. In what appears to be a sordid and unacceptable revelation, the responsible Undersecretary Aukje de Vries has revealed that far more young adult supplement children have died than previously claimed. The government's words - that "only" 60 children had died - appear to be false hopes; the truth is far more horrific. More than 250 young adults are gone, more than four times as many as previously reported. UPDATE: De Vries now says she accidentally shared wrong numbers. 'Only' 62 children died, not 469.
These are numbers that cause immediate consternation, a tremor that runs right through the core of our society. Children, young adults - in the prime of their lives, have been taken from us. In fact, a total of 469 children perished - just over half 18 or older, the rest under 18.
These are not just numbers - these are lives. These are families torn apart, parents grieving, siblings missing loved ones. These are tragedies that we thought were "only" financial, but are now revealing themselves to be deadly.
It is an unprecedented crisis to which the Chamber is now responding with justifiable anger and determination. The bottom line must come out. MP Pieter Omtzigt, known for his intransigence and pursuit of truth, speaks with the force of a statistician: "We know that relatively many children die in the first year of life, but that does not apply to children 18 years and older."
He wants to know if the figures are correct and, if so, what the causes of death are. CBS is called upon to investigate. These revelations are yet another part of the benefits affair showing that the affair is even bigger than thought.
What we see is a stark revelation of the true cost of the benefits scandal - a cost that can be expressed not only in euros, but now in lives. And this makes the search for the truth all the more urgent. For each of these lost lives, for each broken family, we must find answers.
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A dark shadow has fallen over our country. The benefits scandal turns out to be not a bureaucratic mistake, but a nightmare that has cost lives. It is time for us to face the full extent of this tragedy and take responsibility to do justice to those who have suffered most.
There's good news and there's bad news. First the good news: the figures - 469 deceased Child Benefit recipients - turn out to be incorrect. State Secretary Aukje de Vries has offered her apologies to the House of Representatives and corrected the number.
"Last night I spoke with the House of Representatives about one of the most sensitive subjects in the Child Benefit file," says De Vries, "children of affected parents who have passed away. The fact that confusion arose about the figures during the discussion of this subject is terrible and regrettable."
"In the debate, I mentioned that 256 children were older than 18 at the time of death. However, this was actually the number that would have been 18 or older at the reference date used for the child arrangement," she continues. In other words, not the number of deaths, but the number of children who were 18 or older at that time. The actual number of deaths is still quite high, but fortunately, significantly lower: 62.
"This is a painful mistake," says De Vries. "We want to avoid as much ambiguity as possible in the correction process. This topic is especially awkward."
Thank goodness.
The bad news? De Vries appears to be utterly incompetent.
The "Toeslagenaffaire" or "Benefits Scandal" is a major political controversy that has swept across the Netherlands. It centers around the wrongful accusation of thousands of parents of committing fraud in the child welfare benefits system.
Starting around 2013, the Tax and Customs Administration, which is responsible for implementing child welfare benefits, initiated a rigorous fraud detection policy. In this process, many parents were wrongfully flagged as fraudsters, which led to them having to repay the benefits they had received, sometimes adding up to tens of thousands of euros.
The methods employed by the Tax and Customs Administration in their fraud detection system were also discriminatory, profiling applicants based on dual nationality, which disproportionately affected people with a migration background.
The scandal not only had severe financial consequences for the affected parents, often leading to financial ruin, but also immense emotional and psychological strain. In 2020, the government report concluded there were significant unjust actions, systemic failures, and a severe violation of the principles of the rule of law. As a result of this report, the Dutch Government, led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, resigned in January 2021.
The fallout of the scandal continues to unravel, revealing deeper systemic issues and causing widespread public and political outrage. Investigations are still ongoing to provide redress to those affected and to ensure such a travesty of justice doesn't occur in the future.