Almost two million Dutch people have unpaid bills from the government 

Almost two million Dutch people have unpaid bills from the government. Over an eighth of the adult population have not paid bills from the Dutch Tax Authority, the Central Judicial Collection Agency, or DUO, the AD reported. According to Statistics Netherlands, the number of debtors is decreasing, but the debts are more significant.

The number of people who are behind in paying a tax assessment, a traffic fine, or who receive too much benefit or allowance has decreased by just under 10 percent between 2022 and the beginning of 2024. However, the amount to which these people are indebted is growing.

The payment arrears per household at the Benefits Service have increased from 453 to 606 euros. The average unpaid tax debt went from 647 to 920 euros. The UWV benefits agency still receives around 1,200 euros from an average defaulter, about 100 euros more than two years ago.

Student debt with the organization responsible for student financing Duo, has actually decreased in fees over the years despite a new loaning system. The fact that the number of defaulters is relatively high in (student) cities is because households there are generally poorer.

The director of the National Institute for Family Finance Information (NIBUD), Arjan Vliegenthart, has said that in order to reduce the total debts, the only solution would be to cancel the debts in the most serious cases.

According to Vliegenthart, the “hard bottom layer,” as he called the serious cases, cannot be helped with ordinary debt assistance but must be able to start with a clean slate.

“We are in good economic times. Wages have increased by more than six percent in the last two years. People have profited from this and paid off their debts,” he added. “Now that that has happened, we are hitting the hard bottom layer, which cannot get out of debt in this way.” According to him, the government must learn to live with the fact that not all debts are repaid.

The director thinks that people who think the money from the large debts will be paid are deluding themselves. “Some people do not have the income to get out of this debt. Debt relief only helps a few percent of the people who use it, while billions of euros are being pumped into it annually. Therefore, reorganization, starting with a clean slate, is the best way to help part of this group.”