For years, the Dutch Social Security Office made serious mistakes in granting disability benefits, affecting tens of thousands of citizens, according to a report by the country's Court of Auditors.
Auditors estimate that from 2020 to 2024, approximately 33,000 people received incorrectly calculated payments - either over or under. In addition, 400 citizens were wrongfully deprived of benefits and 1,600 received them without legal basis. The report points to weak government oversight, which is focused on eliminating queues for benefit applications rather than monitoring the process of granting benefits, as the main reason for these long-standing errors.
The Audit Chamber notes that despite clear signs of a decline in quality, the ministry responsible for social security “did not exercise the necessary rigor for a long time“ towards the management of the insurance agency. It is emphasized that the increase in errors accelerated especially during the pandemic, when employees switched to remote work and control mechanisms in the social and medical assessment unit were intermittent.
Against this background, the Audit Chamber calls for reforming the system of state supervision of insurance and creating tools that allow citizens to independently assess the validity of their benefits. As the agency notes, implementing fundamental changes will be the task of the new cabinet, which will be formed in the Netherlands after the parliamentary elections held in October.
The Social Security Office has already started reviewing 43,000 benefit applications. A total of 252,000 payments were processed between 2020 and 2024, but the agency does not have the resources to conduct a full review.