Campaign calls on Flemish government to guarantee personalised care for persons with disabilities
Persons with disabilities and various civil society organisations staged a protest on Thursday at the Place des Martyrs in Brussels against reform plans of Flemish minister for Welfare Caroline Gennez. Through the campaign “Ongehoord! Niet Akkoord!” (“Unheard! We Disagree!”), they are calling on the Flemish government to make fundamental changes to its policy and provide “clear guarantees that freedom of choice, self-determination and tailored support will be maintained”.
In order to help more persons with disabilities in Flanders, minister Gennez decided to implement a number of reforms. Among other things, she wants to eliminate waiting lists for care and support (the “person-following budget” that allows people to pay for the care they need, ed.). The reform categorises people with disabilities into different levels of care. Those with the most severe needs will continue to receive a person-following budget in future. Those requiring less intensive support will not receive a person-following budget, but will be able to use “directly accessible assistance”.
According to the campaigners, these reform plans risk “leading more people towards a more limited level of support”. They are asking minister Gennez for “clear guarantees that freedom of choice, self-determination and tailored support will be maintained”.
“Thanks to the personal assistance budget, our daughter can live at home and we can organise our family life in a way that works for her and for us,” said one of the protesters. “Without that help, families like ours risk having to bear the full burden of care alone once again.”
“People like me often seem to be able to cope, but that is precisely why our support needs are underestimated,” said another campaigner, who is waiting for a person-following budget. “I fear that people like me will be left out if freedom of choice is further restricted.”
According to Flemish MP Jeremie Vaneeckhout of the Groen party, “this reform is based on mistrust and cost-cutting logic”. “We risk returning to a system in which people have to accept the existing offer, rather than receiving personalised care. That limits their chances of participating fully in society,” he argued.
According to minister Gennez herself, the reform does offer a solution to shortening waiting lists and thereby genuinely helps people with disabilities to move forward. By expanding directly accessible support, Gennez hopes to improve access to the budget, she added. In this way, more people should be able to benefit from it than is currently the case.
“If you cannot offer people any prospect of support, then you have to reform the system. We are also investing nearly half a billion extra to be able to offer tailored support to even more people.”
The Flemish minister emphasised that she “doesn’t want to take anything away from anyone”. “The aim is to offer support to more people, and to make a system that everyone currently gets lost in more accessible.”
#FlandersNewsService | A protest by the 'Ongehoord?! Niet akkoord!' action group in January 2026 © BELGA PHOTO MYRTHE VAN DER VEKEN