Backlog of unpaid disability claims piling up

About 24 thousand claims from people with a personal budget have not been paid yet, according to a letter State Secretary Martin van Rijn (Health) wrote to the Tweede Kamer (lower house of parliament) A personal budget is a sum of money paid to a qualifying person who needs care or home assistance. With this a person can take his or her personal care into their own hands and decide which care provider to use and how the money is invested. There have been problems with paying personal budget claims since the responsibility was taken over by the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) in early January, NOS reports. Significant delays arose in the repayment. Van Rijn now states that 99 percent of the claims submitted to the SVB are paid within the payment period of 10 days. The remaining 1 percent consist of people who made a mistake in their claim, for example forgetting to fill in their bank account details. The SP thinks that a waiting list of 24 thousand is too long. "All media reports that everything is in order. Our mailboxes explode and then this 24,000 comes out the bag. Many have had no money for two months and Van Rijn just keeps spreading ointment." SP parliamentarian Renske Leijten said. The CDA also has many questions. Member of Parliament Mona Keijzer finds it difficult to reconcile the negative stories coming from throughout the Netherlands with Van Rijn's reports.