Rutte was Secretary of State for Social Affairs from 2002 to 2004 and was currently questioned by the parliamentary inquiry committee on Fraud Policy and Services regarding the approach that favored fraud in those years. In the wake of the Benefits Scandal, this committee examined whether citizens were adequately protected and what role discriminatory risk profiles played.

As Foreign Minister, Rutte warned the city government twenty years ago that Somali-Dutch people might cheat their way into profits. Rutte did this after ‘big signals’ and reports of ‘patterns of fraud’.

Dutch people of Somali origin would move to England, for example, and receive benefits both there and here. The court later ruled that there was discrimination in Somalia’s approach. Responding to questions from the investigative committee, Rutte defended his efforts to tackle the problem: “It was stated that there was a pattern of fraud, so wouldn’t it be a scandal if you didn’t intervene? That’s also crazy.”

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This law provided – and still provides – room to violate basic anti-discrimination rights, provided there is a compelling reason to do so. Rutte believes that these reasons exist, because the reports concern specific groups. “We thought it was possible, but the judge said: it wasn’t proven enough.” With what he knows now – and after the court ruling – Rutte would have taken a different approach, he acknowledged. It was never known how big the fraud group actually was.

Rutte further defended the general fraud policy. According to the outgoing Prime Minister, the ‘risk-oriented’ approach to fraud and linking all types of data is in line with trends that have started under the Van Agt, Lubbers and Kok governments and the line also ‘makes sense’, according to the outgoing Prime Minister go out. “That’s perfectly logical: there have been many reports and suggestions about the system’s vulnerability to fraud and enforcement gaps. We continue it. With risk profiling, you are trying to figure out the likelihood of more fraud occurring among certain groups versus others.”

Years later, this method of profiling turned out to be an important factor in the childcare benefits scandal, in which victims were dealt with by tax authorities, among other things, based on their origins.

Later, Prime Minister Rutte will appear again before the committee to explain his term as Prime Minister. The investigative committee will interview all parties involved in the coming weeks and is expected to draw conclusions early next year.

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