Half of youth care providers making high profits: researchers

Over half of youth care providers make more than 10 percent profit, while 3 to 7 percent profit in care is the norm, and other earnings are supposed to be spent on care. Binnenlands Bestuur reported this after research by Kurtosis, a research and consultancy firm for public organizations. The researchers also found many irregularities.

The researchers analyzed a total of 2,107 youth care providers' annual accounts from 2019. More than four in ten (41 percent) even made more than 20 percent profits. But there are also outliers of companies with a turnover of 100,000 euros which made 50 percent profit or more. This was particularly observed among dyslexia care providers, care farms, and family homes.

The researchers also discovered signals of illegality at 17 percent of youth care providers, according to Bennelands Bestuur - the magazine for officials and administrators. Among the private limited companies in the sector, this was even 55 percent. The latter irregularities are mainly due to the lack of a supervisory board and the limited personal liability, said Kurtosis. At 13 percent, the irregularities caused financial risks. The abnormalities vary in nature and seriousness. In some cases, the annual accounts were simply not correctly completed.

Nearly three-quarters of all youth care providers spend less than 70 percent of all expenditure on wages, while it is still a labor-intensive sector, Binnenlands Bestuur also wrote. High profits and low wages can indicate illegality, according to one of the researchers in the magazine.