Pointer - Season 12

First aired: 1/12/2025 8 episodes

Episodes

1. Oma kan niet weg uit haar grote huis

Aired: 1/12/2025

Build a house for an elderly person, and help everyone. There is a great need for senior housing, the government says. Due to the aging population and the healthcare crisis, there must be 288,000 houses in which seniors can live comfortably, preferably together. This also helps against the housing shortage, because when an elderly person moves, a large house often becomes available, which leads to a series of moves. Yet municipalities hardly allow any additional senior housing to be built. The construction of senior courtyards, care homes and houses without stairs is even worse than normal housing construction. How is that possible?

2. Chronisch ziek in de bijstand

Aired: 1/26/2025

Elke (22) has been looking for a suitable job for years, but due to her autism and mental problems she keeps dropping out. Ultimately, she applies to the UWV for a Wajong benefit, a benefit for young people without the ability to work. You only get this if you can never work again. But how do you prove that when you are still so young? And can UWV doctors make such a prediction? Feline (37) can also hardly work due to various conditions. Yet she does not receive Wajong benefits. She has been on social assistance for years, including all the strict rules. Shouldn't we help young people with disabilities better? And what does politics do for this group?

3. Zijn huizen in aardbevingsgebied Groningen veilig?

Aired: 2/9/2025

The strengthening of the houses in the Groningen earthquake area is difficult. The reinforcement advice of the National Coordinator Groningen, which states whether or not a house should be reinforced, raises questions. Pointer receives dozens of tips from residents who say there are errors in the reinforcement reports they receive about their own home. Sometimes the drawings are incorrectly measured or are incorrect. Also, the advice is often not well-founded and cannot be checked because the calculations are missing. Can residents still trust that they live in a safe house?

4. Op de vlucht voor luchtvervuiling

Aired: 2/23/2025

All Dutch people live an average of eight months shorter due to bad air. And in some places the damage is even greater, such as in the west of Rotterdam. Highways, industry, an airport, shipping, animal husbandry and wood burning come together. However the wind is, you breathe in pollution. Citizens have therefore started their own measuring installations. With titles such as De Neuzen van Vlaardingen, they check the status in their own backyard. Residents see that air pollution sometimes goes far above the limit. They are proven right by scientists and even the measurement services. But what can you do then?

5. Hoe Joodse musici verdwenen uit het KRO-orkest

Aired: 3/9/2025

We dive into the war past of the KRO. What happened to the Jewish musicians who disappeared from the broadcaster's orchestras long before the war? Did their Jewish origins play a role in the dismissal? A reconstruction based on hundreds of previously undisclosed archive documents, the criminal files of the KRO leadership and conversations with surviving relatives of Jewish KRO musicians of the time.

6. Leefbaarheid in arme wijken komt in de knel

Aired: 3/23/2025

Across the Netherlands you can see that the quality of life in neighborhoods with a lot of social rent is deteriorating further. Due to the allocation policy of social rental housing, status holders and people with, for example, psychological problems, addiction problems or debts are all placed together in one neighborhood. This creates an accumulation of problems in these neighborhoods. This increases the nuisance and you see neglect of public space. This is also the case in the Geitenkamp district in Arnhem. In recent years, many shops and facilities have also disappeared here, as a result of which residents are now resisting.

7. Boer zoekt pacht

Aired: 4/6/2025

By 2030 there must be three times as much organic farming. According to experts, leasing land to organic farmers is an important tool, because a third of all agricultural land is lease land. Why does the government as a big leaseholder often opt for the highest bidder? This also happens to organic farmer Pieter Boons. For years he leases a piece of land that he cares for with great love, but then the province of Noord-Brabant no longer renews its temporary lease. He loses the land to a farmer who offers more money, but is not organic. Does the government use their lease land to make it more sustainable or more like dairy cow?

8. 10 jaar oud en anorexia

Aired: 4/20/2025

One of the most deadly mental illnesses, anorexia, strikes at a young age. There is a noticeable increase in girls from even ten years old. They can hardly go to a clinic. The municipality should provide help for the family, but that does not always happen either. Because if your own municipality has not arranged the care properly, then you are out of luck. Parents sound the alarm. Why does it depend on where you live whether you receive this particularly crucial care?