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Ombudsman: ‘Plans should not remain a paper reality’ | NOW

National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen played a key role in the benefits affair. As early as 2017, he warned that there were major problems, which led to the resignation of the Rutte III cabinet three years later. “We have been calling for something to be done for years, but we were not heard.”

Van Zutphen (60) has been a National Ombudsman for almost six years now and will start his second term of another six years in April. “Five years ago, when I took office, I opposed the fraud thinking. I then said that if the government looks at the citizen as a fraud, there will be no good solutions.”

He calls it ‘sour’ that he, the Court of Auditors and the advisory department of the Council of State warned that things were going wrong, but they were not heard. “It took a long time for the penny to drop.”

Two parliamentary inquiries were conducted in a short time, the one into the benefits affair and recently the committee that investigated problems at implementing organizations such as the UWV and the Central Bureau for Driving her findings.

In the latter report, the House of Representatives also looked explicitly at its own performance. Van Zutphen: “The message does not surprise me, especially when I look at all our reports that we have made in recent years. What I am pleasantly surprised is that the House appears to be capable of self-reflection.”

The committee advised the House of Representatives to regard the Ombudsman as ‘an important partner’ and that cooperation ‘should be intensified’. Van Zutphen: “That is of course a nice boost, it feels like appreciation for what we have done in recent years.”

‘Skip that complaints procedure’

In February 2016, Van Zutphen received the first report about problems with childcare benefits when the Eindhoven lawyer Eva González Pérez approached him. She represented a group of parents whose childcare allowance, in her opinion, had been completely unjustified.

Van Zutphen advised González Pérez to first file a complaint with Toeslagen, as the rules prescribe. Months passed, during which those parents were in dire need, before he himself could start an investigation in November of that year.

“I was completely shocked then.” He would have acted earlier now. “I would rather say: skip the complaints procedure, we will get to work ourselves. I have also been encouraged to do so by the cabinet.”

Hotline opened for self-employed people in trouble

  • On average, the ombudsman receives between 25-30,000 complaints per year
  • 10 percent of that is now about corona-related issues
  • Many self-employed people who are about to fall over are calling



Research ended up in a drawer

And there is something else that Van Zutphen would do differently: when he completed his investigation into the abuses with regard to benefits in 2017, he sent it by mail to then State Secretary of Finance Eric Wiebes. Afterwards it turned out that it had ended up in a drawer. “I should have seen him. His officials will give it to him, I thought, but I was too trusting.” Van Zutphen also did not send the report to the House of Representatives. “I should have gone there too.”

We are now two years later, both the parliamentary committee that investigated the benefits affair and the committee that investigated the problems at the implementing organizations have published their reports, the cabinet has resigned and the parliamentary inquiry into the benefits affair will be launched in the course of 2022. kept.

Key figures will be heard under oath, including outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Between 2013 and 2016, he was chairman of the Ministerial Committee on Combating Fraud, which decided to intensify the hunt for alleged fraud. “I understand that the House still wants to look at that,” says Van Zutphen.

‘Self-reliance actually means: find out’

One thing is clear to Van Zutphen: the whole idea of ​​the self-reliant citizen as the measure of things is over. “Self-reliance actually means: find it out. This works for 80 percent of the population, but not at all for 20 percent. And the government must also be there for those people.”

According to Van Zutphen, rules should be simpler and people who run into problems should know where to go. Two years ago, Van Zutphen argued in favor of opening one counter for each municipality where citizens can go with their problems. “At the time I was a bit taken for a fool, but now it is in election programs. The government must always have the door open.”

Van Zutphen will monitor the government closely

The role of the National Ombudsman will be slightly different in the coming government term. Of course, citizens can report to him with complaints, but he will also closely monitor whether the coming government will actually implement all the promises that have now been made.

“All those plans should not remain a paper reality.” He is confident that things can turn for the better. “The problems are serious, but we are not unreasonable. But what does concern me: We are such a rich country, there is not much richer than us. And yet it is always about lack of money. Money should not be the problem. It must be possible to get people who don’t have much to participate anyway. “

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