School book supplier sending parents' bills to kids on their 18th birthday: report

Many young people received a dubious "gift" from school books supplier The Learning Network (TLN) on their 18th birthday. They got the bill for their parents' outstanding invoices, NU.nl reports based on invoices addressed to these young people. The company acknowledged that this happened but added that it is investigating and that it is happening "less and less."

TLN, the largest school book supplier in the Netherlands, has about 30,000 debt collection cases pending, sources told NU.nl. This involves, for example, parents who couldn't immediately afford their kids' school books, bought them on credit and fell behind on payments. As long as the children are minors, parents receive the collection letters. But in several cases, TLN transferred the debts to the kids as soon as they turned 18. The newspaper saw one invoice in which the parents owned just over 100 euros, and their child eventually received a bill for 2,300 euros due to all the extra collection costs.

Willem Los, debt relief coach at the ONSbank foundation, told NU.nl that he approached TLN about these practices in the past. The company said that it didn't pass on debts to children anymore. But according to the newspaper, one of the invoices sent to an 18-year-old was dated June this year. "It is unacceptable that young people who are just starting their lives immediately have to carry such a heavy burden which they can do nothing about themselves," Los said. "These debts must continue to be recovered from the parents."

TLN told NU.nl that incidents of debts passed from parent to child are happening less and less. "There was only one case this year. We are now investigating how this could have happened and are reversing all these cases," a spokesperson said. When asked to guess how debts were passed from parent to child, the spokesperson referred to collection agencies, according to the newspaper.