‘Judges judge themselves harshly in allowance affair’

Judges are extremely critical of the way they have dealt with parents who got into trouble because of the childcare allowance. That’s what it writes AD, which holds a research report from the profession.

A committee of judges looked at all almost 17,000 benefit cases submitted to administrative judges between 2010 and 2019. The conclusion is that most judges blindly followed the approach of the Tax Authorities, even though they did not feel comfortable with it.

‘All or nothing’ explanation

For example, a majority of the judges followed the ‘all or nothing’ interpretation of the rules by the Council of State, according to the AD in the report. Finding justice at the court. Parents sometimes had to pay back tens of thousands of euros when they only owed a small amount.

The report contains an example of parents who had to repay their entire advance of 27,554 euros in 2015, because they had not paid an amount of 77.32 euros. “Such an outstanding amount, however small, in view of the jurisprudence of the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State, is sufficient to reclaim the entire childcare allowance,” the Central Netherlands court stated at the time.

Recommendations

The researchers write that judges should empathize more with citizens and rely more on their own sense of justice. Courts also need to communicate better with each other.

The Council for the Judiciary tells the AD that the report will be officially published at the end of next week and does not want to respond substantively until then.

–