More than 5,000 Brussels residents to lose unemployment benefits

As of January 1, 2015, exactly 5,315 people in the Brussels-Capital Region will lose their right to unemployment benefits. "Single women with children, who in the past worked part-time, are the hardest hit," says Zoé Genot, Ecolo fraction leader in the Brussels Parliament.

The former government under Elio Di Rupo put an end to unemployment benefits after three years for people with an insufficient work history. In half of the cases, those who lose the benefit will be eligible for an income from the Public Centre for Social Welfare (OCMW/CPAS).

The problem varies greatly among Brussels’ different municipalities. Molenbeek, for example, has 749 cases, while Sint-Pieters-Woluwe/Woluwe-Saint-Pierre has just 45.