It is clear that the trust invested in the UWV by the self-employed people concerned was breached. At the heart of the matter is the incomplete and incorrect information supplied to them by the UWV about their obligations under the Unemployment Benefits Act (Werkloosheidswet). The UWV also acted in an untrustworthy manner by comparing the two databases in such a rough and ready way. In addition, it behaved with great disrespect towards the people concerned by drawing such far-reaching conclusions and doing so in such a public manner. Finally, the UWV failed to show a sympathetic and solutionsoriented attitude, since – with the minister’s encouragement – it wrongly refused to take advantage of opportunities to correct its mistakes and since political bickering led to two very lengthy review rounds. 4.4 Q fever Q fever is a disease caused by infection with a bacterium that affects humans and animals. The organism is uncommon, but may be found in cattle, sheep, goats and other domestic mammals. The most common manifestation is mild flu-like symptoms with among others abrupt onset of fever, malaise, profuse perspiration, severe headache, and dry cough. When a outbreak of the disease was found in goats these were destroyed. A Dutch patient organisation called Stichting Q-uestion approached the National Ombudsman in connection with the administrative consequences of chronic Q fever infections. Sufferers of the disease felt let down because goat farmers were compensated for their losses while they were not. In response to questions from the National Ombudsman, the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) referred initially to established arrangements for health care and income replacement. The key problem in this case was the minister’s faith in the existing system of financial arrangements for sickness, labour disability and income replacement. The Q fever patients placed greater stress on their relationship with government and wondered whether they could still trust the authorities, given the way they had dealt with the Q fever outbreak. There were two main issues. The first was whether, in deciding how to inform the public and when to take measures such as culling goats, the authorities had given sufficient weight to the interest of citizens in avoiding infection with Q fever. The second was whether the decision to delay the slaughter of goats – because of the painful economic and moral implications and perhaps in combination with the inadequate information about infection risks given to the public – provided grounds for compensation claims. These two issues prompted the National Ombudsman to conduct further investigations in 2012 concerning the timing and extent of public information provision, the timing of measures such as goat culls and, finally, the possible appropriateness of government apologies and, in certain cases, some form of compensation. These are all issues that relate to trust in government. Recent trust-related cases | 15 Pagina 14
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