Cupboard desires to shut the Surinamese ‘AOW hole’ with a one-off fee of 5,000 euros

The cupboard desires to compensate a bunch of Dutch aged folks of Surinamese origin who acquired an incomplete state pension with a one-off compensation of 5,000 euros per individual. Minister Carola Schouten (Poverty Coverage, ChristenUnie) writes this in a letter to the Home of Representatives on Wednesday. It issues a bunch of people that moved to the Netherlands earlier than Surinamese independence in 1975.

These aged folks counted on having accrued an AOW, based mostly on their years of service within the Netherlands and in Suriname, when the nation was nonetheless a part of the Dutch Kingdom. However the latter turned out to not depend. Consequently, this group has an ‘AOW hole’ and the aged typically miss out on tons of of euros per thirty days. The folks eligible for the allowance have been at the very least 18 years outdated on the time of the transfer and will need to have lived within the Netherlands for greater than 25 years. They obtain the 5,000 euros routinely.

Years of concern

Greater than thirty thousand folks moved to the Netherlands earlier than Suriname grew to become unbiased. For years, aged folks of Surinamese descent with an old-age pension hole have been making an attempt to get compensation. Schouten now writes that there’s a “want to acknowledge the ache of this group as a result of mixture of circumstances”. The cupboard has already introduced that it’s contemplating a compensation gesture for this group of aged folks and has put aside 122 billion euros for this.

Schouten says within the letter that conversations with this group have made “a deep impression” on her. “They really feel like second-class residents, whereas they got here to the Netherlands exactly as a result of they wished to stay Dutch.” Beforehand, political scientists registered NRC that the state pension hole is an indication of symbolic injustice and “a denial of full and equal Dutch citizenship”.