The government is putting citizens with debts even deeper into trouble

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Dutch people who have debts with the government can get into even more problems due to the current repayment scheme. According to the Court of Audit, the subsistence level is not sufficiently taken into account.

According to Nadja Jongman, professor of Debt and Debt Collection at Hogeschool Utrecht, the problem is by no means new. ‘We’ve known this for a number of years and each time we receive a report that shows that we don’t provide the care to the group that needs it so badly.’

‘It is logical that a group falls through the ice’

Nadja Jongman, lecturer in Debt and Debt Collection at Hogeschool Utrecht

Honest way

According to Jongman, a major part of the problem is that the government has a poor idea of ​​which people are involved and who could therefore get into trouble. ‘A citizen has debts with, for example, the Tax and Customs Administration and the CAK, but also with a telecom provider and with an energy company. They do not know from each other that that one citizen has debts with all these parties. The big problem is that if there are several creditors, we don’t have good agreements on how the money that people do have is distributed fairly.’

This even goes so far that the Court of Audit says that the Tax and Customs Administration uses its preferential position as a creditor to ignore other debts of a citizen. ‘Then it makes sense for a group to fall through the ice.’

Solution

It is by no means easy to create that overview and to get a good overview of all those people. For example, in the past there was talk of a national, central registration of debts, but the House of Representatives did not agree to this at the time because of privacy legislation. Jongman: ‘But you can opt for traffic rules about how people’s available money is distributed. Now they are only there once door values ​​are in the picture. This way the debts mount and you can wait until that door value comes into the picture, with all the extra costs for that citizen. There is a real challenge here.’

A good start, according to Jongman, would be to prohibit creditors from asking citizens for payments if the money has already been forgiven to other parties who do not want to comply. And then there has to be a dividing party. It can’t be first come, first served.’ She does, however, foresee that a certain escalation system will be needed if certain creditors do not want to give up part of their money in favor of other creditors. ‘There must be an incentive that this behavior is not accepted.’

Dutch people who have debts with the government can get into even more problems due to the current repayment scheme.  According to the Court of Audit, the subsistence level is not sufficiently taken into account.
Dutch people who have debts with the government can get into even more problems due to the current repayment scheme. According to the Court of Audit, the subsistence level is not sufficiently taken into account. (ANP / Robin Utrecht)

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