Blame or Karma? The attribution of Blame in the Childcare Benefits Affair

The childcare benefits affair has been one of the most impactful political events in the Netherlands of the past two decades. Not only has government policy and action deliberately and unjustly impaired the lives of thousands of families, which led to its eventual resignation, but the affair has also refocused government attention onto the capacity and quality of government services and executive agencies. The WAU programme encompasses several projects aimed at improving the quality of the national bureaucracy and executive agencies. At the same time, we also observed that blame has not been attributed to all parties involved, meaning that some causes have not been resolved and might lead to new affairs in the future.