Requests for help are constantly increasing from the CPAS and also from the middle class. Example in Braine L’Alleud where the Public Center for Social Action helps workers to pay for their fuel.
A home nurse, Laurence travels more than 100 km a day to visit her patients. Like many workers, she sees her budget seriously cut by fuel prices. “The mutual does not reimburse us more for care, so it’s a big shortfall for us”, she confides.
The CPAS of Braine-l’Alleud proposes to intervene in the fuel costs of workers and volunteers living in the municipality. Stated objective: to encourage work by avoiding employment pitfalls.
“The workers are having difficulties. All the CPAS feel it. So we are giving a little boost to the pump to all these workers who say to themselves, why go to work if I spend so much to go there”explains Pierre Lambrette, the president of the public center of social action.
The measure is aimed at workers who have spent at least 20% of their March salary on fuel. The CPAS will cover the difference between the amount of one euro and that paid at the pump.
“If it’s 1.78 euros for gasoline, you will be paid 78 cents per litre”adds Pierre Lambrette. “People who have a petrol card cannot claim it. And we are also thinking of multi-owners. If you have rental income, we are not intended to intervene in your expenses.”
The cost of this equity-financed measure is estimated at 50,000 euros per month. Not all municipalities will have the means to offer such assistance.
“I think that in Braine-l’Alleud, this measure is taken because the finances are good. There are other CPAS, in the big cities, where we have drawn attention to the fact that the finances are very worrying”indicates Luc Vandormael, the president of the CPAS federation of Wallonia.
In the past, only the most precarious people called on the Walloon CPAS. But due to the economic situation, these now help a growing number of workers from the middle class.