The work of the Resistance Participants and War Victims department (hereafter V&O)  consists on the one hand of acting according to the rules, policies and legal requirements of the Pension and Benefit Board and Social Insurance Bank and on the other hand of – in a respectable manner and in accordance with the law – defending the rights of the war victim.

The Pension and Benefit Board of the Netherlands is responsible for the admission to the arrangements that provide financial support to (relatives of) resistance members and victims of the Second World War and the period of irregularities in the former Dutch East Indies. The Board determines the policy for these statutory regulations and advises the Social Insurance Bank (SVB), which is responsible for the implementation of these regulations, in all cases in which the adopted policy does not provide regulation.

The V&O department mainly relates to three laws, namely:

• Act extraordinary pension 1940-1945 (Wbp);
• Act on benefits for persecution victims 1940-1945 (Wuv);
• Act benefits for civil war victims 1940-1945 (Wubo).

The laws are based respectively on the debt of honour of the Dutch people towards resistance members and on the special solidarity towards persecuted and civilian war victims. The statutory regulations provide for income-supplementing pensions and benefits and/or contributions to costs incurred in connection with the physical and/or mental consequences of the Second World War and the period of irregularities in the former Dutch East Indies.