GroenLinks and the SP want parents to have free childcare for three days. How do they plan to finance this? They want to completely get rid of childcare allowances, reports NOS.
These three days of childcare is not exactly set in stone. They also said that if the parents want more, they should finance it themselves. However, if someone is a single parent and they have a low income, then they might be entitled to a higher number of free childcare days.
Does the childcare system need to be changed?
These proposed changes come after new evidence has resurfaced about the childcare allowance affair, where a number of parents were falsely accused of being fraudsters. Childcare allowance was either stopped or they had to repay thousands of euros. The new evidence (an evaluation report from 2015) points to the fact that State Secretary Snel knew there were more parents affected than he let on.
However, despite this controversy, Klaver from GroenLinks believes that things are not going to get better even if Snel were to leave. He says the current system of providing childcare allowance is not robust enough and has its faults. He said on NOS Radio 1 News on Tuesday, “parents have to pay first and then get money back from the government and that goes wrong in 80 percent of the cases.”
MP Leijten from the SP agrees with him. They had suggested a similar proposal a few years ago and are on board with GroenLinks’ proposal.
Do you think the childcare allowance system should be changed? Let us know in the comments below!
Feature Image: Christian Abella/Pixabay
