Correction: Automatic exemptions for the Dutch equivalent of British council tax (lower amounts than council tax) were the issue that the city of Utrecht got admonished for. (The Dutch heading of the article had two possible interpretations.)
I had wondered why this was not done automatically, particularly within the context of the so-called poverty alleviation legislation (“vroegsignalering”). The same goes for waterboard bills. Why isn’t it simply done automatically instead of spending huge amounts of taxpayer money on trying to teach people who can count and are already counting their pennies how to count their pennies?
The crowdfunding in Utrecht is also intended to create a buffer for people if their benefits get cut because of some work they do or other income. This can cause their finances to collapse completely.
I’ve warned before that people on benefits who crowdfund some of their unaffordable expenses such as dentistry bills should let others do that crowdfunding for them and let them pay. Otherwise they will get cut and get into trouble.
Poverty is remedied by increasing people’s income and lowering their bills. It’s that simple.
Povertyism is horrible. Povertyism has become rife in the Netherlands.
Each time the central city of Utrecht awards these basic benefits, the state admonishes the city. (Corrected above.)
Fed up, Utrecht decided to start crowdfunding this basic financial support for people with no or very little income.
That explains a lot!
At the same time, a different government department tries to fight the results of the state’s attitude by assuming that people in poverty are basically just too stupid to apply for exemptions, tax credits or these basic benefits.
It is hard to believe.
It can hardly get any crazier.
Low-level civil servants are probably being blamed for this mess. (I apologise to anyone who I have partly blamed for this mess while they were not to blame at all.)
I haven’t seen any top politicians in the Netherlands recently – except Timmermans – who seem to be capable and have their heads screwed on properly.
But anyone who tries to address the current mess in the Netherlands, even if it’s someone from the Dutch royal family, gets admonished and kicked to the kerb too, as far as I can tell.
When I moved back from the States a long time ago, unexpectedly, because of funding hiccups, getting these basic benefits was no big deal at all. It helped me get back on my feet (in spite of affordable housing also being a big problem back then). I’m not saying it was easy but without that basic financial support I’d have been lost.
Source Utrecht news: Trouw, 14 January 2025
