The ministerial cabinet of the Netherlands, which resigned in January, deliberately hid from the Dutch parliament critical information concerning the scandal that involved child benefits to protect officials from criticism, RTL Nieuws reported on Thursday, citing minutes of government meetings
PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd April, 2021) The ministerial cabinet of the Netherlands, which resigned in January, deliberately hid from the Dutch parliament critical information concerning the scandal that involved child benefits to protect officials from criticism, RTL Nieuws reported on Thursday, citing minutes of government meetings.
Earlier this year, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his government found themselves embroiled in a scandal involving officials mistakenly accusing thousands of parents of childcare benefit fraud and demanding to pay the money back. The ensuing backlash forced Rutte to dissolve his third cabinet on January 15.
According to the media outlet, the ministers feared to "set a precedent" if they agreed to pay compensation to thousands of parents, involved in the childcare benefit fraud. During the cabinet discussions in 2019, some lawmakers were accused of being critical, including Pieter Omtzigt, a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal party.
The ministers decided to support the cabinet. According to the reports, they also agreed to leave the legislature in the dark regarding the information requested by the lower chamber on the incident, including the data on improper activities by the country's Tax and Customs Administration, of which the officials were aware.
In December 2020, a parliamentary committee set up by the lower house published the results of an investigation showing that the tax authorities had wrongly accused hundreds of families of fraud and demanded that they pay child care benefits back to the treasury, which left many parents with serious financial problems. In some cases, it was tens of thousands of Euros.
