Childcare allowance victims abroad are difficult to reach

Lawyers and interest groups fear that not all victims of the benefits case will actually report compensation. It is especially difficult to reach people who have moved abroad. The organizations say that some of them left because the tax authorities are pursuing them.

So far, 968 people have been registered with an address outside the Netherlands. It is impossible to determine how many people are not in the photo.

Another wind blows

“We know, in part from conversations with deluded parents, that people have moved abroad because they can no longer pay their debts,” the Finance Ministry says.

According to the ministry, there are attempts to reach deceived parents, at home and abroad, through messages, a website that contains information in English, Facebook and Twitter. We want to restore the trust that has been shattered. ”Since last week, there has also been a webpage on the Internet with information for parents living abroad.

According to Gjalt Jellesma van Boink, Parents’ Interests Group in Childcare, Secretary of State Van Huffelen is keen to get every parent into the picture, but more needs to be done to reach these groups.

“These people have been left with the idea of ​​a very hostile government. We must make it clear that different winds are already blowing in this regard. It is possible, for example, that you broadcast a commercial on the channels that are also shown and listened to in Morocco and Turkey.”

Bus or metro to school

Lucia Martis of the relief organization Profor has seen people migrate abroad in recent years. “I saw at least ten or twenty days off during the period when the tax authorities were pursuing them. They no longer had a life here, and many of them became depressed and fed up.” And worried people who owe tens of thousands of euros.

“Because all the allowances are often cut, some parents didn’t even have the money for the bus or subway to send the kids to school.” Martis doesn’t know where they are now. They may also want as little contact as possible with the Netherlands. “