Government essentially forcing people to commit fraud: Ombudsman

The Dutch government is essentially forcing certain groups of people to structurally commit fraud, the National Ombudsman, Reinier van Zutphen, said in a report published on Tuesday. It involves professional administrators, legal representatives, and informal caregivers who have to digitally do business with the government, a health insurer, or the bank on someone else’s behalf, Trouw reports.

Such online administration requires personal login details in the form of a DigiD. People who can’t handle this themselves can authorize someone else to do it for them. But there are many people in the Netherlands who are physically or mentally unable to give this authorization at all, making it impossible for their caregivers to digitally apply for their benefits or declare a healthcare invoice without committing fraud, the ombudsman said.

The only way to legally arrange things for these people is in person - physically going into the municipal office - or by post, Han Mennen of EMB Nederland, the association of parents and relatives of people with severe multiple disabilities, told the newspaper. Both require time and effort. The easiest way by far is to log in with the person’s DigiD, Mennen said. That counts as identity fraud.

Jan Koning of the NBBI, the trade organization for professional administrators and curators - people appointed by the court to manage other people’s financial affairs. “I estimate that 70 percent of all administrators log in with clients’ DigiD,” Koning told Trouw. The clients are typically competent and able to provide authorization. “But you need a separate authorization for each digital counter, which is unworkable.”

In his report, the National Ombudsman also pointed out that many governments and implementing organizations don’t even have the option of working with an “authorization DigiD.” That requires separate software. Only 21 of the 342 Dutch municipalities allow you to digitally do business on someone else’s behalf.

“The government is increasingly forcing people to arrange things digitally, but must also make that possible,” Van Zutphen said. As things stand now, the government leaves people with no other option but to commit fraud.

According to Mennen of EMB Nederland, State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen of Kingdom Relations and Digitalization promised his organization to turn a blind eye to informal caregivers’ identity fraud while a solution is found.

The government has been promising to find a solution for a decade, Van Zutphen pointed out. “It doesn’t seem to be a priority, even though it concerns a large group of people.” About 273,000 Netherlands residents are under administration, and another 2.6 million people are not digitally skilled and want someone else’s help.

The National Ombudsman urged Van Huffelen to come up with a plan within three months to improve digital access for informal caregivers and administrators. “It is not okay to turn a blind eye. If this is the morality of our government, it worries me.”