Teachers asked to pay back €400,000 due to admin error

The Flemish Agency for Education Services (AgODI) is demanding that 188 teachers pay back back-pay they received by mistake. Some teachers are being asked to repay as much as €20,000. In total, AgODI is looking to retrieve €400,000. 

Until the beginning of 2012, the law stated that AgODI should allow back-pay up to 10 years after the date. The teachers were entitled to back-pay because of, for example, incorrect calculations or the submission of inaccurate information previously. A new law brought back the payment term to five years after the original date, but AgODI did not act accordingly in all cases.

Flemish ombudsman Bart Weekers recommended to the Flemish Parliament that it “show fairness” by cancelling repayment demands and integrating the amount in the budgetary resources of 2014.