#bad #experiences #citizens #share #ideas #government
Sushilla Kouwen | State Rule of Law Commission
NOS Nieuws•gisteren, 18:45
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Bas de Vries
Research Editor
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Bas de Vries
Research Editor
What needs to be done in concrete terms to ensure that citizens are no longer manhandled by the government, as happened with the benefits scandal? Today, the State Committee on the Rule of Law is asking people who have had bad experiences with the government at a so-called citizens’ forum in Utrecht.
That committee was asked last year by the now outgoing cabinet to come up with very concrete recommendations to improve the functioning of the rule of law for citizens. This not only concerns civil service organizations, such as municipalities and ministries, but also the judiciary and the House of Representatives. After all, things went wrong in all those areas during the benefits affair.
First concrete recommendations
The final report is due this summer. But at the end of December, the state commission already sent an “interim conclusion” to (then) informant Ronald Plasterk. Possibly out of fear that the advice will otherwise be a bit like a mustard after dinner in about six months’ time, at a time when the new cabinet may already have been formed and the available billions have already been distributed.
That letter already contains a series of concrete recommendations that could lead to changes that are noticeable for ordinary Dutch people. Such as investments in training of civil servants who have a lot of contact with citizens, especially the most vulnerable among them.
The committee also proposes to invest money in better accessibility of the government, especially by telephone. She also advocates more support from both Houses and political parties.
The complete package of recommendations will cost a lot: together around 1.7 billion euros. But remember, says the committee, the recovery operation for allowances costs an estimated 7.1 billion euros. “In other words: investing is an expensive obligation, but doing nothing is more expensive.”
Saskia and Manna have had to deal with assistance themselves and know what needs to be done by the government:
Citizens in trouble tell the state commission how things can be improved
Civil servants are learning to listen better to people who come forward with problems and to take those problems seriously – it seems like an obvious thing to do after all the commotion surrounding the benefits scandal. But anyone who asks around will learn that most governments are still doing little in this area.
An exception is the municipality of Leeuwarden, which has developed a large board game for this purpose. You then encounter all kinds of dilemmas from daily practice: what if a citizen reports a specific problem that the civil servant also considers unjust, but if the best conceivable solution conflicts with certain rules?
“In Leeuwarden, such an official may deviate from those rules, provided that they are properly substantiated,” says councilor Abel Reitsma (CDA). “These training courses are intended to emphasize to our employees that the ‘human dimension’ must come first and that we as the municipal council support them if they act accordingly.”
Building bridges
At the request of the State Commission, dozens of citizens have gathered at the citizens’ forum in Utrecht, all of whom have suffered greatly in their own way from the lack of that human touch.
One of them is Mandy Richter, who, as a victim of the benefits affair, sees that to this day people are wrongly labeled as fraudsters by the government. She now helps other benefit victims.
Manna (who prefers not to give her last name) is also trying to improve things after bad experiences with authorities. During a difficult childhood, she always had to deal with other care providers. A municipality asked her as an ‘expert by experience’ to help build a bridge with citizens in trouble. And that works, she notices. “Things that make a lot of sense to me are really eye-opening for some of my colleagues.”
Remove prejudices
That would also be Saskia Brandewijn’s most important advice: appoint more experienced experts who help to remove prejudices that sometimes exist among civil servants. For her, these prejudices led to the fact that, as a woman on social assistance, she was so pushed to participate in a work program that she suffered a “gigantic burnout”.
“That can never be the intention: that the government will only make things worse for you?” says Brandewijn. “Things are now going a lot better, but if I can help prevent others from having to experience the same thing, I would be happy to do so.”
Today in Utrecht, Mandy, Manna and Saskia will try to come up with more solutions together with other citizens with bad experiences. At the end of the day they present those ideas to the State Commission.
