27.11.2021

Rules are there to be set aside sometimes: how to find the golden mean? Essay in Trouw, Nov. 27, 2021

Rules are there to be set aside sometimes: how do you find the golden mean? Without rules it becomes a mess. But with rules it can also go horribly wrong, if you apply them too strictly. How do you find the right middle ground? (with Sanne Schreurs)

Anyone who works anywhere has to deal with rules. They provide a foothold. But sometimes they don't work. Then the question is whether you can break the rules, whether you can deviate from them. That question arises, for example, in a court ruling earlier this month. The court in Arnhem whistled back benefit agency UWV, which had set the disability benefit of a seriously ill woman at 182.42 euros per month.

This young woman had worked for two months after college at a much higher monthly wage. However, the UWV calculated the benefit based on her average daily wage - and that was significantly depressed by a single day of work in her old side job, in addition to those two well-paying months as a graduate. With that single day for which she received more than forty euros, she retrospectively forfeited her rights to a significantly higher benefit, because it made her ineligible for a more favorable start-up scheme. That was too much for the judge. The UWV should not have applied the rules so strictly in this case because of the disproportionately adverse consequences for the woman. This situation called for customization.

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