A judge has wiped the student debt of a woman who was the victim of identity fraud. The Minister of Education ‘stuck to a rigid stance for too long,’ according to the ruling.
In 2022, several suspects were convicted of identity fraud. Using the DigiD accounts of 48 people, they applied for student finance. They did so retroactively, causing the amounts to balloon significantly.
One of the victims is a woman with an MBO-2 diploma. In her name, €12,500 in student finance was fraudulently claimed, supposedly because she was studying at the University of Curaçao.
Filing a Report
For nearly two years, she was completely unaware. Notifications about her debt were sent via her MijnDUO account, but why would she check it? It wasn’t until DUO sent a letter to her home address that she found out. She filed a police report for DigiD fraud.
Despite the conviction of the perpetrators in 2022, this woman was still expected to repay the debt. DUO argued that her DigiD login credentials had been used, suggesting she had been careless with them, and thus it was her own responsibility. Some victims had indeed given their login details to the perpetrators, so perhaps she had too.
Rigid Stance
The court has reprimanded the government. It wasn’t unreasonable for the minister to initially ask this woman to repay the debt. “But once it became clear that this was a scam involving the misuse of personal data from 48 individuals, a different approach should have been taken,” the ruling states. This is especially true because the victims were people in vulnerable social and economic positions.
The conclusion: by continuing to demand repayment and even rejecting a request for debt cancellation, ‘the minister stuck to a rigid stance for too long.’ The woman’s student debt will now be cancelled, and the ministry must also cover the legal costs. The ruling does not specify how many other victims should receive similar relief.
HOP, Bas Belleman
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