40,000 people to lose unemployment benefit
Nearly 40,000 unemployed Belgians will no longer receive social security benefit from Sunday, because they have been unemployed for too long. The measure is part of a broader measure from the federal government to get as many people as possible to work.
As of 1 March, workers who lose their jobs will receive an allowance for a maximum of two years. Until last year, people were able to receive unemployment insurance for life, although there were several conditions.
When the new measure was introduced, it was estimated that nearly 200,000 unemployed people would have to find alternatives. Those 200,000 have been unemployed for longer than two years. Not all of them will be without income from Sunday. People who have been unemployed for more than 20 years lost their right on 1 January. People who have been unemployed for between eight and 20 years lose their right on 1 March. People with between two and eight years of unemployment lose their allowance in the coming months.
It’s unclear how many people exactly will be hit in the present wave. The group of between eight and 20 years amounted to nearly 40,000 people last year, but it is thought that several of them will have found a job in the meantime. There are also some exceptions on social grounds.
Besides getting more people to work, the government hopes the measure will save social security a lot of money. However, people who have been unemployed for that long are likely to struggle to find a well-paid job and therefore pay higher taxes. Many of the affected people will probably turn to local social services to receive a minimum allowance there. Another measure starting on Sunday is stricter control over the conditions for receiving this allowance.
Other parts of the policy are measures to make people on long-term medical leave return to work and measures to realise a tax shift, with lower taxes on labour and more taxes on consumption and capital.
© BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS LAMBERT
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