Prime Minister Alexander De Croo sees no consensus within the federal government to limit unemployment benefits over time, but sees possibilities within the Flemish government, he said on Sunday on the set of the program De Zevende Dag (VRT).
CD&V President Sammy Mahdi recently declared himself in favor of a time limit on unemployment benefits. The Open Vld subscribes to this idea, as does the MR. Within the Vivaldi, the socialists oppose it. But, according to Alexander De Croo (Open Vld), both the N-VA and the Open Vld and now the CD&V, i.e. the three parties that make up the regional coalition in the north of the country, are in favor of the time limitation of allowances unemployment. “With the VDAB policy, we can already take steps in this direction”said the Prime Minister, who points out that the Flemish employment office is suspending a very limited number of people, only a few cases in the first half of this year.
In a reaction, N-VA federal deputy Björn Anseeuw underlines that the labor market needs to be reformed urgently, but that the De Croo government does not go beyond some trial and error at the margins. “The federal government agreement states that we must move towards an employment rate of 80%. However, it has not taken any measures to move in this direction. And today the Prime Minister is simply throwing in the towel .”
For Flemish nationalists, Flanders is well on the way to reaching an employment rate of 80%. Last year, for example, the VDAB suspended no less than 1,362 unemployed. In the first half of this year alone, there were already 792. The number of suspensions in Flanders is therefore increasing sharply from year to year. Mr Anseeuw pleads for an asymmetrical labor market policy, which Flemish CD&V Minister Hilde Crevits has already advocated. “But nothing will happen due to the inability of the De Croo government to put anything in place. That they transfer the competence of the labor market completely to Flanders.”
VDAB director general Wim Adriaens said the Flemish employment office issued nearly 12,000 sanctions and warnings in the first six months of 2022. “Compared to the number of job seekers, it is more than Onem when they had the power to control and sanction job seekers.” According to him, “the VDAB is bound by a strict federal legislative framework which determines to what extent a job seeker must actively seek employment and which jobs he may refuse.”
Onem has calculated that, in the first quarter of 2022, 5.6% of the unemployed will receive a sanction or a warning from the VDAB. In Wallonia, this proportion is 2.3%.
