News from Amsterdam


To the front page

11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

 

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

2006 Archive

2005 Archive

 

 

 

 

VVD wants answers on home inspections

23 July 2007 - On 13 June, alderwoman Hennah Buyne said home inspections will not be carried out solely because social assistance recipients fit a risk profile. However, on 31 May she wrote that this does happen. The VVD wants a clarification.

Amsterdam claims to have saved 25 million euro worth of benefits by inspecting social assistance recipients’ homes. However, the Central Appeals Council (CRvB) has ruled that welfare agencies may not invade the privacy of social assistance recipients’ home solely because they fit a statistical risk profile.

Since then, it has been unclear to what extent Amsterdam has changed its inspection policy. In a council meeting, Buyne confirmed that Amsterdam is no longer using risk profiles. However, the welfare agency (DWI)’s investigation plan for 2007, sent to the city council two weeks earlier, states it does use risk profiles.

Frans Beishuizen (VVD) is annoyed that the matter still has not been cleared up, despite endless discussions. “Clients of the DWI must know their rights when the agency pays them a visit”.

From informal contacts with the DWI he learned that home inspections based on risk profiles have been suspended because this approach was no longer cost-effective after a large operation had been completed. However, the agency would like to start a new round of inspections soon.

The VVD has asked written questions in order to get this information confirmed by the alderwoman.

Beishuizen is in favour of changing the law in order to make home inspections based on risk profiles legal. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) requires a legal basis for infringements on the privacy of one’s home.

However, the CRvB stated that the lack of a legal basis was not the problem - in fact, it said there already is such a basis in Dutch law. However, it ruled that the fact that someone fits a risk profile is insufficient to meet another criterion set by the ECHR, namely, that there must be a necessity to invade this person’s privacy.

See also: VVD rejects ethnic profiling; VVD (in Dutch); CRvB (in Dutch). Illustration: Hennah Buyne (photo Jean Pierre Jans)

 

Want to receive News from Amsterdam? Click here


This is the old website. Please find new content here