New weapon in the fight against social fraud

From now on, when a foreign worker submits a document in Belgium falsely reporting that he or she is paying Social security Social security is currently managed at the Federal level in Belgium. The most important pillars of Belgian social security are: sickness and invalidity insurance (NIDHI), pensions, unemployment insurance and child allowances. In addition, occupational illness, occupational accidents and annual holidays are dealt with at this level. Some Flemish parties have been campaigning for years for (large parts of) social security to be transferred to the Regions and Communities. social security contributions in his or her own country, a judge has the option of rejecting it. Until recently, one of these so-called A1 documents was still binding in all circumstances. “Finally, Europe is sending a clear signal that fraud is unacceptable,” MEP Helga Stevens remarks.

A great many Eastern European construction workers are employed here using false A1 documents. If they are not paying social security contributions either in Belgium or in their home country, that represents unfair competition for our Flemish construction workers. “By not heedlessly accepting A1 documents, the European Member States are no longer powerless against cheats,” Helga Stevens says. “As it is, misuse of documents such as these is currently quite high. “That undermines social support for the internal market.”

Social security contributions to be paid sooner in the host country

The N-VA is also pushing for seconded workers who are employed in Belgium to pay their social security contributions sooner: “As it now stands, they are still able to pay their social security contributions in their own country for two years. As long as that remains the case, Flemish workers will continue to lose out to the competition. In high-risk sectors, such as our construction sector, a secondment should be allowed to last for a maximum of six months in our opinion. After that, social security contributions must be paid in the host country.”