Dutch municipalities reclaim only 4 percent of Covid subsidy scheme TOZO

Dutch municipalities only reclaimed 4 percent of money paid out under TOZO, a temporary bridging scheme for self-employed people during the coronavirus pandemic, Pointer reports. Experts say the percentage of people who committed fraud via the scheme is probably much higher.

In all, 130 million euros were reclaimed: for example because the recipient ended up earning income after all during the payment of the benefit, or because the municipality discovered a fraud. This amount is "very little,” according to Dick Ruimschotel, a law enforcement and fraud researcher.

The scheme was set up in March 2020 and the last round of payments went out in October 2021. Municipalities were instructed to err on the side of paying out, rather than being overly cautious. As a result, "ridiculously few" people were fined for fraudulently collecting the TOZO benefit, Ruimschotel told Pointer.

The municipality of Amsterdam was the most lenient and granted more than 95 percent of the total applications, according to Pointer. It later reclaimed 7 percent, only slightly higher than the 4 percent national average. In similar subsidy schemes, around 20 percent of funds are received illegally.

Ruimschotel believes municipalities were not motivated to look for fraud because the funds came from the government, and because they ultimately did not want to drive entrepreneurs away. “Purely from the point of view of legitimacy and justice, you might question that so little has been detected here," he said.

However, Amsterdam alderman Groot Wassink believes the main takeaway is the gap in social security benefits that this revealed. “If we had had regular care for this group of self-employed people, I am convinced that it would have cost us less money than these kinds of emergency measures," he told Pointer.