‘Australisch toeslagenschandaal’: Een bestuurswetenschappelijk perspectief op het systeemfalen van Robodebt

Dramatic as it was, the Dutch childcare benefits scandal is not unique. This follows for example from its similarities with the Australian Robodebt scandal, in which approximately 500,000 benefit recipients were faced with unlawful debt collections by an automated decision-making system. And like the childcare benefits scandal, Robodebt was a ‘system failure’: errors at the administrative level were interwoven with critical weaknesses in the system of rule of law control mechanisms. Working towards a better understanding of this broader phenomenon of system failure in the digital welfare state, this article discusses the Robodebt scandal from a public policy perspective. The analysis demonstrates that Robodebt is characterised by a combination of policy failure, organisational errors and rule of law-weaknesses that is strikingly similar to the childcare benefits scandal. Viewed together, the two social security scandals highlight the dangers of excessive distrust in benefit recipients and the ability of such a socio-political paradigm to disrupt the entire system of rule of law control mechanisms.