Tussen de regels: een rechtssociologische studie naar handhaving in de sociale zekerheid

Abstract

‘Fraud should never pay off’ is a commonly heard statement in the Netherlands. The Dutch political and public debate is currently dominated by the notion that fraud in social security must be severely punished. The Tightening of Enforcement and Sanctions Policy Social Affairs and Employment legislation came into effect on January 1st, 2013. This law introduced a stricter system for the legal sanctions of Social Assistance Agencies (municipalities) and the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) with the intention of deterring stubborn fraudsters. The law is therefore often referred to as the ‘Fraud Act’. With the introduction of the act, the Dutch legislator has expressed its wish that social security agencies should enforce the law more strictly. The question is how this is done in practice. This dissertation focuses on the role of front-line officials who are involved in the enforcement of social security legislation. For this purpose, I have observed various employees in the course of their daily work. I have analysed the implementation practice of social security legislation by using two perspectives. The first perspective is the enforcement styles of front-line officials and the second perspective is the possible alignment of the enforcement choice with the attitude and behavior of the beneficiary (responsive regulation). The bottom-up approach of this research provides a new perspective on the - often closed - world of enforcement.