Court orders tax office to pay benefits scandal victim to prevent her eviction

The Oost-Brabant court ordered the Dutch tax authority to immediately pay an extra advance of over 7,000 euros to a victim in the childcare allowance affair. The money is to prevent her from being evicted from her home, her lawyer confirmed to NOS after reports in RTL Nieuws and Trouw.

"It is a harrowing situation that arose due to the actions and omissions of the tax office," lawyer Pejman Salim said to the broadcaster. "Fortunately, the judge has temporarily resolved my client's problems."

According to Salim, his client is a hardworking entrepreneur with children. Two years ago, the tax authority accused her of fraud and ordered her to pay back her childcare allowance for 2016, 2017, and 2018. "From that moment, everything went wrong, as a result of which she did not have enough income to pay rent."

The State committed a wrongful act and must also be prepared to pay advances to its victims, the lawyer said. "So that people do not get into problems in the short term while their claims are being handled."

Salim expects that other parents in the childcare allowance scandal are facing similar problems. "We are dealing with thousands of parents. One is being deported, others are moving or have medical problems. It seems to me in line with expectations that several people will have to knock on the Tax Authorities' door to be able to solve urgent problems."