Cutting back politicians’ transitional benefits: financially unnecessary but hard to justify
In the media image: Christian Dubovan on Unsplash
Figures from the Dutch Ministry of the Interior show that politicians’ transitional benefits have increased fivefold in a decade. Social security law expert Barend Barentsen tells ‘Het Financieele Dagblad’ that this contrasts sharply with proposed cutbacks in social security.
According to Barentsen, there are no strong financial reasons to adjust the transitional benefit scheme for former politicians, part of the Appa scheme, which is designed to help them return to their own income as quickly as possible. The sums involved are relatively small, he emphasises: ‘A few million more or less is nothing compared to the billions spent on unemployment benefits.’ From a budgetary perspective, further cutbacks are therefore hard to justify.
Still, Barentsen notes that ‘solidarity’ may become a factor now that the new Dutch coalition is opting for significant reductions in social security. With the halving of the duration of unemployment benefits, the Appa scheme stands ‘in even starker contrast’. Barentsen: ‘I understand that such a relatively generous scheme is now particularly hard to explain.’ He also warns of implementation challenges: if the number of former politicians continues to rise, intensive reintegration support may come under pressure. ‘With the unstable cabinets of recent years, the risk of unemployment for politicians in The Hague is relatively high – and the new minority cabinet is yet another experiment.'
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Read the full article in FD (€, in Dutch)