On Monday, the Parliamentary Interrogation Committee for Childcare Allowance will start. The committee, consisting of eight members of the House of Representatives, want to find out how things could have gone so horribly wrong at the tax authorities in the hunt for fraudsters with benefits.
What was the benefit affair about again?
In the summer of 2014, all 157 customers of a childminder agency in Eindhoven received a letter from the Tax and Customs Administration stating that their childcare allowance was discontinued immediately and that they must repay all allowances received. The reason is not listed.
Years of uncertainty, stress and financial problems followed among the victims. Later it turned out that the tax authorities too discrimineerde.
Not only parents of the Eindhoven childminder agency have been labeled as fraudsters. It is estimated that there are about 26,000 cases.
In the first week, mainly (former) top civil servants were summoned to be heard under oath. Their names have only appeared in requested documents so far. Never before have they spoken.
Then it will be the turn of politicians such as Prime Minister Mark Rutte, PvdA leader Lodewijk Asscher (Minister of Social Affairs in the previous cabinet) and Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs.
A brief description of some of the protagonists.
Monday, November 16:
Eva González Pérez
– Lawyer at lawyers collective Trias
González Pérez became involved in the benefits affair back in 2014. As a lawyer she assists dozens of duped parents.
At first she thought it was so easy, so obviously the Tax Authorities were wrong in her eyes. “I thought in the beginning: I do one or two things and if I win, I realize that it is not right,” she told it at the end of last year. Eindhovens Dagblad.
It turned out to be six long years and still not everything has been completed. During that period she fell from one surprise to another at the way the tax authorities acted. She brought in the Ombudsman, with great pain and difficulty persuaded the Dutch Data Protection Authority to start an investigation into discrimination, brought lawsuits all the way to the Council of State and involved politicians in the file.
“I actually wanted to wind it up and get on with my life, I only had a headache,” she said in a interview met One World about her struggle. Perhaps that is not surprising, González Pérez was demonstrably opposed by the tax authorities.
Hans Blokpoel
– General Director of Taxes at the Tax Authorities 2010-2016
As Director of Taxation, Blokpoel was also head of the Combination Team Approach Facilitators (CAF), the team of the tax authorities that detects fraud with benefits.
His name first appeared in the media at the end of last year thanks to research by RTL News and through Faithful requested documents. These media already regularly write about the case and are always able to uncover new facts.
The documents show that Blokpoel is aware of the abuses and is consciously pursuing the policy. “Blokpoel really wants to close everything, including surcharges, even if they are probably good”, it can be read.
Tuesday, November 17:
Sandra palm snakes
– Technical coordinator Surcharges 2016-2017
Palmen-Schlangen was only called up for questioning by the committee at the very last moment. As an employee at the Tax Authorities, she wrote an extremely critical already in March 2017 memo about the actions of the tax authorities.
The memo shows that the top of the Tax and Customs Administration was already aware that their approach was wrong. If the House had already received that document immediately, it could have saved a lot of reading time and valuable time.
It is striking that the House also requested this memo, but did not receive it. A painful pattern in this file.
Peter Veld
– Director-General of the Tax Authorities 2010-2015
Veld was the highest ranking official on Finance between 2010 and 2015. Like Blokpoel, he was aware of the abuses. Nevertheless, he had the surcharges of possible fraudsters stopped rücksichtslos, even though he knew that as many as one in five was innocent.
Gerard Blankestijn
– Director of Benefits at the Tax Authorities 2011-2018
Blankestijn is the next high-ranking official who was aware of the wrong policy and did not act against it.
He may, among other things, explain to the interrogation committee why the memo of Palmen-Schlangen, who spoke the day before, was not already sent to the House and the Donner Committee in 2017.
People will also be curious about his explanation as to why he did not inform the then State Secretary Menno Snel (Finance) that the tax authorities second nationality of civilians, while this is not allowed.
Friday November 20:
Jaap Uijlenbroek
– Director-General of the Tax Authorities 2017-2020
Uijlenbroek came to the tax authorities as a manager to get things out of hand reorganization to get back on track, but he ended up in the morass of the benefits affair.
RTL News in Faithful reported this spring that Uijlenbroek had promised three key players in the benefits affair not to punish them if they cooperated in an investigation into the derailed fraud hunt. Uijlenbroek was eventually repelled by the top of Finance. At the beginning of this year he had to get on.
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