Behind on repaying your student debt? DUO may soon pass the details on to your municipality

Student finance agency DUO will provide municipalities with information about student debts and payment delays, so they can see which residents may be at risk of getting into financial trouble.

The government believes municipalities need to be able to offer help sooner as part of the fight against poverty and debt. People should be alerted earlier when they are entitled to certain benefits, services or debt relief.

To that end, municipalities, benefits agency UWV and the Social Insurance Bank will be allowed to share more information with each other. That is the purpose of a bill passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The idea is that municipalities should not wait for people to come to them – because sometimes they do so too late, or not at all – but should proactively contact certain residents with help and information.

Student debts

But what about student debts? If municipalities want to alert residents to the benefits and services they are entitled to, it is useful to know who has student debts and is behind on payments, the ChristenUnie and D66 believe.

The two parties proposed an amendment to the bill that would allow student finance agency DUO to take part. “DUO is one of the largest creditors in the Netherlands and many people with problematic debts also have an outstanding debt with DUO”, says the explanatory note to their amendment.

The municipalities and DUO are in favour. VVD minister for Work and Participation Thierry Aartsen also supports the idea. The amendment was passed. In the end, a large majority voted in favour of the bill.

The populist and radical-right parties did not. BBB issued an explanation for its vote and cited, among other things, the risks to privacy.