The Dutch government has resigned over a scandal in which it wrongly accused thousands of parents of child benefit fraud which left many in financial ruin.
Remuneration claims for people caught in the controversy are expected to top €300 million ($363.8m, £266.9 million) as about 10,000 families will be receiving at least €30,000.
On Friday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Cabinet announced the mass resignation, with just two months to go until the general election. The premier will stay on as caretaker leader until the March 17 election.
"The buck stops here. We are of one mind: if the whole system has failed, only joint responsibility can be borne. And that leads to the conclusion that I have just now offered the king the resignation of the entire cabinet," Mr. Rutte cited.
A Dutch parliamentary report called the government's move to wrongly claim tens of thousands of euros from parents, an "unprecedented injustice".
The report found that “fundamental principles of the rule of law have been violated”.
Between 2013 and 2019, the Dutch tax office has accused thousands of families of falsely claiming child welfare payments and driving families into financial difficulties, often causing them to split.
Even Mr. Rutte, who became prime minister in 2010, has previously called the controversy “shameful”.
"The rule of law must protect its citizens from an all-powerful government, and here that's gone terribly wrong," he added.
Green leader Jesse Klaver welcomed the mass resignation of cabinet members as the "right decision" for the Netherlands.
"Let this be a new beginning. A turning point," he wrote on Twitter, saying this could be "the moment when we rebuild our welfare state".
Janet Ramesar, a parent caught up in the scandal, said: "It's important for me because it is the government acknowledging, "we have made a mistake and we are taking responsibility."
Many of the families were targeted based on their ethnic origin or dual nationality, the tax office said last year.
Orlando Kadir, an attorney representing about 600 families, said that people had been targeted "as a result of ethnic profiling by bureaucrats who picked out their foreign-looking names".
Great pressure was built upon Mr. Rutte’s four-party coalition government on Thursday when the opposition Labour party leader Lodewijk Asscher announced his resignation. He was social affairs minister from 2012 to 2017 in a previous Rutte-led coalition.
Despite the scandal, Mr. Rutte’s center-right-liberal coalition is still leading in opinion polls, with far-right leader Geert Wilders being his closest challenger.
"Innocent people were criminalized, their lives destroyed," Mr. Wilders tweeted. "It is not credible that officials should continue as if nothing had happened."
