Once again severe criticism of the National Ombudsman on handling the issue of allowances

The process of compensating parents who were deceived by the allowance issue takes place “in bad weather”. This was written by National Ombudsman Rainer van Zutveen, who has conducted new research on the matter. “Parents are still stuck, recovery is slow and the system is very complicated.”

In the period under study, the number of complaints lodged by parents increased significantly, while the number of complaints dealt with decreased sharply. According to Ombudsman Van Zutphen, everything should aim to provide clarity to affected parents. According to him, the Cabinet must take drastic decisions and actions. “We won’t get there that way.”

At the end of last year, the Implementing Organization for Refund Allowances (UHT) was set up to deal with complaints from parents in this issue. In May, the Ombudsman already concluded that this is not going well and now there is another very important report: The complaint is justified, but there is no solution. The Ombudsman writes: “I see no improvement.”

Stress and uncertainty

Van Zutphen notes that UHT has a large backlog. Legal processing times are exceeded in more than a quarter of cases. By the end of September, the maximum resolution period for more than 5,700 refund requests had expired.

An additional issue is that parents are not informed when their refund request is being processed. They often don’t know where they stand and this leads to more stress and uncertainty. “Parents want to be able to close this issue emotionally and financially, but they can’t,” Van Zutven wrote. It is difficult to contact the implementing organization. Parents do not respond to letters or call back requests.

very complicated

According to Van Zutphen, the situation people end up in is similar to what they were before. “They tell us that over and over again: we really should be treated differently,” Van Zoutven said in an explanation in the paper. Radio NOS 1 News.

The Ombudsman concludes that UHT Ombudsmen can do little about it. “There is no doubt that there is a lot of hard work going on out there.”

According to him, the system is very complex, which causes parents to stumble. Complaining about the duration of treatment is not a solution: the implementing organization believes that the complaints are justified, but it does not shorten the waiting time for the parents.