Brandbrief lawyers allowance affair: government makes it impossible for us to assist parents | Inland

Before lawyers can view their client’s file, there is a waiting period that has now risen to 24 months, according to the letter. Parts are not supplied fully or partially censored. To assist clients, lawyers must have full access to the files, they write.

The lawyers also want a team at the Tax and Customs Administration Recovery Organization (UHG) to be set up to answer questions directly. “Normally there is a number where we as professionals can go and then you will be helped right away. Now we have to call the regular service line. Those people cannot help the victims themselves,” says initiator of the fire letter, lawyer Khadija Bozia. The people in that desired team must have the authority to view a file within 24 hours and be able to ‘escalate’ it, so that action can be taken quickly. “For example, in the event of a threat of eviction of a child,” says Bozia.

Schade experts

The government must also release a budget to call in the assistance of loss adjusters. For the lawyers who assist the victims, it is ‘wet finger work’ to determine the amount of the ‘immaterial damage’, because they are not competent in this. “For example, the level of psychological damage: due to a divorce, discrimination, dismissal, being blacklisted, being harassed by the tax authorities. How do you link an amount of money to that?”, Bozia wonders on behalf of her colleagues. This requires the help of experienced loss adjusters, money for this must come from the government, the lawyers write.

The Dutch Bar Association (NOvA) shares the concerns and is working with the lawyers on a proposal for a faster work process. “As soon as possible”, the order wants to offer an improvement proposal to outgoing State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Supplements) “during a discussion about the bottlenecks encountered by the lawyers”, according to a NOvA spokesperson.

The outgoing cabinet is prepared to look into the possibilities of working with fixed amounts to compensate victims in the scandal surrounding the childcare allowance. State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Supplements) made this promise during a debate with a very critical House of Representatives. The parties collectively press for a much faster settlement of the benefits scandal. At the current rate, it will probably take many more years for all the affected parents to be compensated.

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