Pensions: end to ‘benefit tourism’

12 July 2016
Pensions : c'en est fini du « tourisme social »

At the N-VA’s behest, the phenomenon of social shopping, in which people over the age of 65 migrate to Belgium in order to receive the Guaranteed income for the elderly (inkomensgarantie voor ouderen, IGO) without ever having contributed to our 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 , is being brought to an end. The measure will result in an estimated spending cut of 2 million euros, which will increase to 9 million by 2021. But above all we make our social security fairer, by restoring the link between a benefit and a minimum contribution.

The IGO is necessary to ensure that shorter careers are also protected against poverty by pensions. In practice it often concerns women who have only worked for a few years and have been stay-at-home mums for the rest of their lives. However, anyone currently over the age of 65 can apply for that IGO after one day in Belgium. People often brought elderly people to Belgium via family reunion, only to immediately and successfully apply for such benefits. Currently there are over 1,600 elderly persons that do not have a Belgian passport and receive an IGO.

Residence requirement: ten years

The new law stipulates that a residence requirement of ten years must have been met, at least five years of which were uninterrupted, before an IGO can be received. More specifically, the National Register also monitors whether ten years of legal residence are concerned. In doing this, we follow the example of other countries with a generous social system, such as Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland: they also couple residence requirements with benefits or a basic pension.

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