Dutch Rutte government to resign over child welfare fraud scandal

Mark Rutte's Dutch government is to step down after thousands of families were wrongly accused of child welfare fraud and told to pay it back.

Families suffered an "unparalleled wrong", Dutch MPs decided, with tax officials, politicians, judges and civil servants leaving them powerless.

Many were from an immigrant background and hundreds were plunged into financial difficulty.

Rutte will submit the cabinet's resignation to the king, reports say.

The decision comes at a key moment in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Netherlands has gone into lockdown and ministers have been considering stiffer measures to halt the spread of infection. The Rutte government is expected to stay on in a caretaker role until parliamentary elections in March.

This is not the first time a Dutch government has resigned en masse in a gesture of collective responsibility. In 2002, the cabinet stood down after a report criticised ministers and the military for failing to prevent the massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica during the Bosnian war seven years earlier.