CPAS warning about cuts to unemployment benefits

The Brussels federation of CPAS social welfare providers is warning that the looming cuts to unemployment benefits could cause a massive influx in people seeking government assistance.

Brussels CPAS president Sébastien Lepoivre said the compensation currently planned by the federal government is largely insufficient in the face of this expected surge in claimants.

“We are very concerned, the whole sector is concerned, because there will probably not be enough financial resources,” Lepoivre told RTBF.

The federation estimates that 60% of people who will be excluded from unemployment benefits will turn to public social services – twice as many as the government imagines.

The government is planning a total budget of €234 million for 2026 for all CPAS organisations in the country. The breakdown by region is not yet known, but the Brussels federation did its own calculations.

“If we assume that 22% of those excluded are from Brussels, we take 22% of these amounts and arrive at a budget of just over €51 million, whereas our needs are estimated at €158 million – there is a considerable gap,” said Lepoivre.

“We’re going to be asked to anticipate as much as possible, to commit, to train people so that we are ready for 1 January. So we would like to sound the alarm because it seems to us that there are a whole series of expenses that are invisible and certainly not taken into account.

"For the moment, the government's gamble is to reimburse, and possibly increase, the reimbursement rate for integration income. But clearly, that's not all there is to it."

The federation hopes its warning will be heeded as the federal government prepares for a week of negotiations towards a major summer agreement that includes the refinancing of the country's CPAS organisations.