Traffic fine collection fees putting thousands of households in financial trouble

Rapidly increasing collection costs for traffic fines fill the government coffers but result in problematic debts for tens of thousands of households, the Volkskrant reports based on an analysis of traffic fines imposed in the past three years. The Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB) claims an average of 137 million euros in collection costs per year, on top of the original fines.

The Volkskrant analyzed data received from the CJIB after an appeal to the Open Government Act. Reminder and collection costs comprised almost a fifth of the traffic fines imposed from 2020 to 2022.

A quarter of the collection costs were for fines due to an uninsured vehicle, the WAM fine. The Road Traffic Department (RDW) checks uninsured vehicles based on the vehicle registration register. It can issue a fine of 370 to 400 euros twice a year. After two reminders, that can amount to 2,400 euros in fines per year, even if a vehicle is not on the road, according to the Volkskrant.

The high reminder and collection costs are causing problems for thousands of families. According to figures from Statistics Netherlands, 725,000 households were struggling with problematic debts at the start of this year. For 125,000 of those households, the debt was partly or wholly the result of a traffic fine that had tripled in amount due to reminder and collection costs.

Outgoing Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz acknowledged that the increases due to reminders “can be significant and drastic” but added that the costs are avoidable. “By paying the traffic fine on time or using a payment arrangement,” she told the Volkskrant.

But Merel van Rooy, a researcher at the Institute for Public Economics, called that easier said than done. Car owners don’t just leave their vehicles uninsured, Van Rooy said as an example. “People with debts and less self-reliance are overrepresented among the uninsured. And they often ignore the mail.”

Someone who becomes uninsured because they can’t afford the monthly premium and can’t face opening the mail can quickly be saddled with a tripled fine. “Half of the WAM fines are repetitions, and in 85 percent of those repetitions, the previous fine is also still open,” Van Rooy said.

Of the average 8 million traffic fines per year, about 900,000 aren’t paid immediately, after which the CJIB sends a reminder. The CJIB sends a second reminder for about 459,000 thousand fines per year. Those reminders increase the annual fine amount of 707 million euros - including 72 million euros in administration costs - to over 844 million euros, according to the Volkskrant.

The reminder and collection costs for traffic fines increase much faster than the fines for serious offenses, which are handled by the Public Prosecution Service (OM) instead of the Ministry of Justice and Security. The Ministry hiked these costs in 2012 to fill budget gaps. Minister Yeşilgoz announced an increase in traffic fines earlier this year to also fill gaps in the budget.

The OM warned that the fact that the government was increasing traffic fines more than it was increasing other fines meant that the penalty for a minor traffic violation was now higher than that for some serious offenses. In November, the Council of State urged the government to stop closing budget deficits by increasing traffic fines. “The fines are intended to increase road safety. The amount of the fine must, therefore, also be proportionate to the nature and seriousness of the traffic violations.”