In 2019, the risk of poverty in our country was still 14.8 percent, and in 2004 – at the first measurement – 14.3 percent. It is striking that the decline mainly took place in Brussels and Wallonia, where more people live on benefits, and not in Flanders, where the poverty rate remains stable at 7.8 percent.
“We see the effect of policy measures, in particular the successive increases in a number of benefits,” responds poverty expert Wim Van Lancker. “That conclusion is inevitable. The effect is even stronger than we expected.”
The decline is indeed mainly among the non-working. Their risk of poverty remains very high, but has fallen sharply. Among the unemployed, for example, the risk of poverty has fallen from 48 percent in 2019 to 41.5 percent in 2022. This remains extremely high, but does suggest an effect of the improvement of social minimums.
Among workers, the risk of poverty increases by more than one percentage point from 3.6 percent to 4.7 percent. This goes hand in hand with rising employment, Van Lancker thinks. More people in work does not automatically mean a decrease in their risk of poverty, depending on the type of job, salary and their family situation. If social transfers (benefits and allowances such as child benefit) are not included, the risk of poverty among workers has increased from 13.2 percent in 2019 to 14.3 percent today.
Don’t lose benefits
The good figures go against the perception that poverty in our country is not going well. “But one does not contradict the other,” says Van Lancker. “It is still possible that there is a group in deep poverty whose lives are getting worse and worse. But conversely, there must also be people who were just below the poverty line and who were lifted just above it by the higher social benefits.”
There remains a gap of almost 40 percent between the poverty level of working people and that of non-working people. “Focusing on better income protection for the most vulnerable works to reduce poverty,” concludes Van Lancker. “The question now is how better income protection can be sustainably combined with a further increase in employment.”
He points to the need to make social protection less binary. “We must make it more possible for people who work not to lose their benefits completely. If we combine social transfers more with work, we avoid transferring the problem only to the group of working people, where poverty will then increase.”
Stricter controls on the unemployed
According to figures from Flemish Minister of Labor Jo Brouns (CD&V), who publishes Het Laatste Nieuws, the VDAB issued more than 29,000 sanctions and warnings last year to unemployed people who were not looking for sufficient work. This is the highest number since the VDAB took over the inspection authority from the federal NEO in 2016.
According to Brouns, the controls have become stricter. In recent years, investments have been made in stricter and more watertight monitoring of job seekers. Just like last year, this will lead to more sanctions and warnings, it is said.
In the vast majority of cases, it concerns job seekers who do not fulfill the agreements made with their mediator. For example, they do not show up for a meeting or to draw up an action plan. A smaller proportion of the files concern job seekers who do not cooperate sufficiently or not at all in the implementation of what was agreed, such as actually applying for a job. An even smaller group was sanctioned for refusing a job offer.
