The cabinet says the handling of the welfare issue is progressing too slowly and is “undesirable”. Therefore, according to a letter sent to Parliament by Nieuwsuur, the government intends to take action to help those affected sooner. However, those concerned have serious doubts about its feasibility.
Last week, Nieuwsuur reported that municipalities expect all victims to be compensated as early as 2030 under the current approach. President of the Association of Dutch Municipalities Peter Heijkoop later expressed his wish for the cabinet to speed up the process. The draft cabinet letter confirms the impression that things are moving too slowly.
Aukje de Vries, Secretary of State for Certificates (VVD), writes in a draft letter to Parliament that the enforcement organization for certificate recovery (UHT) needs to step up. UHT does a “light test” first to determine if anyone has been duped. In this case, 30.000 Euro compensation will be paid immediately. Anyone who is more confident or does not accept rejection will then receive a comprehensive overview.
“The final integrated assessments will not be completed until 2027 if implementation continues in the current form and with the current capacity – with the expected number of enrollments,” the Secretary of State writes. “This is undesirable.” After the integral assessment, people can still report to the property damage committee if they have suffered additional damage, such as the loss of a home or job.
Planning “still in progress”
In the draft letter sent to Parliament, the Secretary of State expresses the goal of completing all integrated assessments by 2025. All objections to UHT decisions in 2026 also need to be finalized. “Improvements are also being implemented” to deal with the additional damage, but plans are “still in progress” for this.
A key “prerequisite” for successful acceleration is hiring additional staff and keeping existing staff from leaving. “Increasing attempts are being made to take permanent positions,” writes the Secretary of State. And: “Invest in employee loyalty so that knowledge and skills stay with the organization”.
leaving work
Nieuwsuur spoke to several stakeholders about the plans, but they are skeptical of the strategy. They confirm that employee turnover is high at UHT and that recruiting campaigns do little to attract new employees. “Last year we already planned to hire more people and retain more employees. If it didn’t work then, what does UHT do differently now?” asks one of those involved.
Most of the staff is outsourced. According to a draft progress report seen by Nieuwsuur, only 324 FTEs were ‘own staff’ out of 1,379 full-time jobs at UHT at the beginning of January. The rest are outsourced or work as temporary workers.
Other measures to speed up victim compensation are mostly procedural and still vaguely defined. For example, caregivers of victims are “given more attention in treatment” and “cooperation with the specialist is strengthened”. “More specific information is collected to have a better and more targeted dialogue with parents”. Compiling and polishing personnel files is done in a “less time consuming way”.
Additional damage should also be done faster
The cabinet also wants to expedite compensation for additional damages, such as the loss of a job, home or car. More than 1,100 people have already applied to the Actual Claims Committee (CWS), but only 276 recommendations have been made. Many more cases are expected to come as victims will not be able to come forward until they close their UHT cases completely. According to the draft letter sent to Parliament, the CWS takes an average of nine months to process a case.
Source: NOS
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
