No allowance for unknown address
People who are not known by the tax office will not receive any advance rent or healthcare benefits. In addition, the tax office will not pay an advance benefit if a residential address is not current or if a municipality indicates that an address may not be correct.
From 2014
Finance minister Weekers wants to combat benefit frauds with these changes. This was stated in a letter he sent to the Lower House on Friday. With an increased risk of fraud the tax office will also give no advances out. These measures should come into effect in early 2014.
Limit retrospective requests
Weekers also has a number of measures in mind which he would like to examine first before introducing them. He possible wants to limit retrospective benefit requests. This will already be introduced for the childcare allowance to counter fraud an misuse.
Checks
Currently the tax office looks back every quarter to see if an applicant for a healthcare allowance has health insurance. Weekers will see if this can be done in advance. The applicant will then have to wait longer for a decision. The cabinet also wants more information on fraud exchanged within Europe.
Weekers says the measures he has now announced, and earlier measures alreadu introduceds are aimed at tackling the problems identified in the report by Abvakabo FNV.
Tax officer not on commission
Abvakabo also suggested it might be a good idea for employees of the tax office to work on a commission basis but Weekers is against this. Working on commission suggests that officials may have conflict of interest in making corrections on tax returns.