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【素心素食素問 譯自 經濟學人周刊】
福利社會體制之反思
1 每個國家的福利狀況都反映了這個國家整體的道德品質。拿荷蘭來說，這個國家的福利就相當豐厚。當然，荷蘭的福利制度有非常複雜之規則，以防止 「 不配之人 」 騙取國家給予的高福利。
2 然而，在過去的十年間，原本用於偵測濫用育兒津貼的福利管理系統，卻錯誤地把兩萬多名家長標記為福利詐騙者。這樁醜聞，終於迫使首相馬克•呂特及其所領導的荷蘭政府內閣，於今年 1 月 15 日集體辭職下臺。
3 在荷蘭，託兒服務由社會的私人機構提供，而政府的稅務部門會根據兒童父母收入情況給予相應的福利津貼，以用於支付託兒服務之費用。2010 年，自首相呂特領導的中右翼政黨自民黨政府上臺之後，一再加強了打擊福利欺詐的法律法規，並且賦予了稅務部門搜尋福利欺詐者的新的權力。
4 很快地，荷蘭律師界就開始接到來自兒童父母之投訴 — 他們本來享有的育兒津貼不僅被中止了，而且還被要求償還之前已經獲得的所有補貼費用；若未及時償還，便被處以罰款。
5 荷蘭國家監察專員於 2017 年就提交報告，批評稅務部門未能公正地對待兒童父母，但是育兒福利斷供的情況仍然繼續發生。2020 年 7 月，荷蘭個人數據保護局發現，稅務部門所使用的系統算法，會對那些具有雙重國籍的父母貼上 「 欺詐風險 」 的標籤。
6 國會議員彼得•奧姆齊赫特指出：「 這其中發生了不少惡劣之事：種族貌相歧視、列入黑名單、無理由地被視為欺詐者，最終導致身敗名裂或破產。」 這位議員在揭露這樁醜聞中發揮了重要作用。
7 被錯誤指控的父母終於看到了某些正義，如荷蘭政府承諾，給予每個被誤判之家最少 3 萬歐元的賠償。但僅止於此，人們依然深感失望。律師伊娃•岡薩雷斯•佩雷斯為 40 個家庭代理了此類訴訟，她質疑：「 這麼多年來，我們聽到的都是政府無錯可糾；如今，怎麼突然就低頭了呢？」
經濟學人周刊 報導
A benefits scandal sinks the Dutch government
1 Every country's welfare state is a reflection of its soul. Take the Netherlands — Dutch benefits are generous. But benefits are subject to complicated rules meant to exclude the undeserving.
2 Over the past decade, systems meant to snoop out abuse of child-care benefits wrongly labelled more than 20,000 parents as fraudsters. On January 15th Mark Rutte, the prime minister, and his cabinet resigned over the scandal.
3 Child care in the Netherlands is private, but the tax authority gives parents subsidies to pay the fees, depending on income. After Mr Rutte and his centre-right Liberal party took office in 2010, laws to fight benefit fraud were repeatedly sharpened. The tax authority was given new powers to hunt cheats.
4 Soon Dutch lawyers began getting complaints from parents who had not only had their benefits cut off but had been told to repay everything they had ever received. Those who did not repay fast were hit with fines.
5 A report by the national ombudsman in 2017 criticised the tax authority for mistreating parents, yet the benefit stops continued. Last July the personal-data authority found that the tax service had used algorithms in which parents with dual nationality were labelled fraud risks.
6 "There were a few really nasty things: the ethnic profiling, blacklists and citizens labelled as fraudsters for no reason and financially ruined," says Pieter Omtzigt, an MP who was instrumental in uncovering the scandal.
7 The parents are at last seeing some justice. The government has promised each family at least €30,000. Even that was frustrating to some. "All these years we have heard nothing can be done," says Eva González Pérez, a lawyer who represents 40 of the families. "Now suddenly it can?"
背景資訊
荷蘭福利醜聞觸及到的痛點問題
荷蘭育兒津貼醜聞實則觸及到了荷蘭社會長期存在的兩大痛點。其一是對種族的潛在歧視，其二是不公正的稅務政策。
第一大痛點在文中有提到：去年七月，荷蘭數據保護局對稅務局發起一項指控，稱稅務局所使用的算法會優先追蹤具有雙重國籍的公民，並將此信息用於風險篩查。數據保護局認為，此舉違反了隱私保護條例，也是對移民群體的偏見和歧視。
第二大痛點是荷蘭國內不公平的稅務政策。政府在對經濟窘迫的個體進行嚴格審查、高壓追繳的同時，卻對大企業的逃稅避稅行為過為寬容。在荷蘭，每年因「企業稅收濫用」而損失的稅收高達 9 億美元，與之相比，育兒津貼所涉及的金額則要小得多，而政府對這兩件事的態度和處理方式卻差別很大，因此引起了民眾的強烈不滿。