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Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's government stepped down on Friday after it emerged that officials had wrongly pursued thousands of people over welfare fraud, Deutsche Welle reported. Rutte called a Cabinet meeting in The Hague where ministers had to make up their minds on quitting just two months before a planned general election. Following the meeting, Rutte informed King Willem-Alexander of the government's resignation.

As the source reported, the Dutch tax office had accused thousands of families of fraudulently claiming child welfare payments between 2013 and 2019. It demanded repayments of tens of thousands of euros, driving many families into financial ruin and, in some cases, divorce.

A parliamentary report called it an "unprecedented injustice" to claw back tens of thousands of euros without giving the accused a chance to prove their innocence.  Rutte, who has been prime minister since 2010, described the episode as "shameful."