The scandal that collapsed the Dutch government

The Netherlands has a reputation as one of the sensible, efficient countries of Europe. Asked to predict which government was most likely to collapse in the face of a national scandal, many EU watchers would not have bet on Mark Rutte’s government.

But while the political fallout has been extraordinary — Rutte cycled to the palace earlier today to tender his entire cabinet’s resignation to the king — the scandal that preceded it has a curiously Dutch feel. Their failure? Mismanagement of the country’s complex child benefit system. Thousands of parents have been driven to financial ruin. A parliamentary committee looking into the tax office fiasco last month labelled it an ‘unprecedented injustice’; unblinking criticism which Rutte took on the nose, describing it as ‘fair’ when announcing his cabinet’s resignation to the world. 

Over the last decade, some 20,000 parents had been incorrectly labelled as fraudsters by the tax office — sometimes for the most minor mistakes in child benefit forms — and chased for every cent ever claimed.