Martin Pocornie is an Occupational Expert at Asito and candidly talks about how his life was turned upside down because of financial problems a few years ago.
Martin and his wife pretty much had everything sorted. A good job, a decent income, five children, their own home and all their financial affairs in order too. Until they fell victim to the Benefits Scandal and got themselves into financial difficulties. Martin and his wife found themselves in an horrendous and desperately lonely situation for ten long years. Having little or no money month after month had a truly suffocating effect and certainly makes your world very small.
White envelopes with red lettering
Bailiffs, sky-high fines and debts which were stacking up. Something didn’t feel right to Martin and his wife right from day one and they fell victim to the Benefits Scandal. Thousands of families in the Netherlands had their childcare allowance incorrectly stopped and reclaimed for years as a result of errors by the tax authorities. These families were also labelled fraudsters by the tax authorities and the situation unsurprisingly hit them very hard. A direct result of mistake after mistake by the government. Martin also fell victim to the Benefits Scandal. Martin: “We continued receiving the dreaded white envelope with red lettering from the tax authorities for months on end, telling us documents were missing and that we had to pay back large amounts of childcare allowance. But this wasn’t possible at all, as we’d always properly supplied all required documentation. The strange thing was that we kept on receiving the same letter from the tax authorities. And as we obviously didn't want to get into any kind of trouble, we continued supplying the very same documents over and over again. Until one day a letter with a high claim fell onto our doormat. The only thought running through my mind was 'How can this be? What's going wrong here?’ You start doubting yourself and all you can think of is that high claim. And that causes stress. A huge amount of stress. And before I knew what was happening, we’d fallen victim to the Benefits Scandal.
Guilt and shame
We really had nothing to complain about. We had a good life, could pretty much do what we wanted and enjoyed a decent income every month. And then suddenly your world literally turns upside down. We lived on just a few hundred euros a month for years, the fines and payments were stacking up and we were confronted with some pretty horrendous repayments. It went from bad to worse. We were wrongly labelled as fraudsters and were regularly subjected to visits from the bailiff. And suddenly we were apparently known to the authorities because we were in financial strive. With BKR registrations, at the bank and with other authorities. And our income was seized. This was horrendous and there was nothing we could do about it. You feel utterly powerless and the debts just continued rising month after month. And we just couldn’t shake it off. We took evidence to authorities to demonstrate the fact that the debts in question were a direct result of an error by the tax authorities. But they shut the door on us too and the stressful period just relentlessly kept going. Things got so bad in the end that my wife, who is highly educated, no longer dared to work at her education level. She was incredibly frustrated by the whole situation and suffered a great deal of anxiety. But I never stopped believing my wife and I would manage to get out of this together. We felt immense relief when the Benefits Scandal eventually ended up in the media.’
Support and help from Asito
Martin joined Asito after a number a years in 2016. His manager informed him his salary would be seized. Martin: “I was in complete shock. Especially as I had to hear this through my employer. But Asito certainly did provide me with immediate support and help. And I decided to tackle it head on, no matter how difficult this was, as it frustrated me and made me feel incredibly insecure. I wanted to fight for this injustice and therefore hired a lawyer with Asito’s help. Asito also recommended the free FikKs app. You’ll be assigned a buddy via this app if you’re suffering from financial problems, who will subsequently be able to help you put all your financial affairs in order. The Ex-Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem was my buddy. He helped me to put my affairs in order and also provided me with some very useful tips and savings options. The most extraordinary thing was that I was asked to tell my personal story to other companies, institutions and individuals. I travelled the country with him and that certainly resulted in a huge amount of impact. My story made people think. And that really felt very special to me.
Get help and start a conversation
I have always drawn great strength from my faith and held onto the fact that this situation was simply something that happened to us. But I still found it difficult to ask for help. Because I was too proud and experienced an overwhelming amount of stress and sadness. I also didn’t feel comfortable asking for help from my immediate environment. I didn't want to have to depend or reply on them and I especially didn't want to ask them for money. But we did end up asking my parents, brothers, employer, friends and the church for help, simply because we had no choice.
I have now learned to talk about it and to look for help when needed. You can’t even start to think about moving forward until you’re ready to start talking about things. Get help! Enlist the services of a budget coach and enter into realistic agreements. They’ll help you produce a detailed analysis of your financial situation, they’ll provide you with valuable tips and take the first steps towards getting everything back on track together with you. Do everything step by step. And only enter into agreements which you know you can keep. Authorities and various aid providers can certainly provide you with plenty of support and assistance, but ultimately you’re the only person who can set the amount you can afford to repay each month. Asito also offers the possibility of enlisting the help of a budget coach anonymously. And I can’t stress the importance of doing so enough for anyone with financial problems, regardless of how big or small these may be.
My wife and I also decided on a clear division of tasks. This allowed us to distribute the stress between us more effectively. And it definitely helped us to get through this situation. I didn't want to know everything, simply because that stressed me out too much. And so my wife would deal with certain things as and when required.
And I naturally did the same for her too. The situation had happened to us and we were going to do everything possible to get out of it together. That was always our goal. We have received a huge amount of support from families, friends and the church. And now life is good once again. Despite the fact I still feel a great deal of anger when I read and hear about the Benefits Scandal.’
Martin is happy again
The right help has allowed Martin to regain his debt-free status once again and he feels incredibly lucky that he was always able to continue living in his home with his wife and children. However, he still harbours a certain fear and anger. Fear of getting into debt again and angry when he reads or hears anything about the Benefits Scandal. The chapter isn’t completely closed as yet, because he’s still waiting for compensation. He’ll continue fighting for this!