THE HAGUE (Reuters) – The government of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte collectively resigned on Friday over its mismanagement of childcare subsidies, national broadcaster NOS reported.
Rutte was to inform King Willem-Alexander of the decision and hold a press conference later on Friday.
The decision follows a parliamentary inquiry last month that found bureaucrats at the tax service, with government oversight, had driven thousands of families to financial ruin with wrongful accusations of fraud.
The inquiry report said around 10,000 families had been wrongfully forced to repay tens of thousands of euros of subsidies, leading to unemployment, bankruptcies and divorces. It described such mismanagement over a decade as an “unprecedented injustice”.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Peter Graff)
