Budget Minister Vincent Van Peteghem has confirmed that he wants to review Belgium’s flexi-job scheme, warning that it is creating unfairness and could have cost the public finances nearly €500 million in 2025.
Speaking on Tuesday in a parliamentary committee, Van Peteghem said the review was a matter of good governance. He said policymakers should not wait 10 years to act as, he argued, had happened in the case of long-term sickness.
The Deputy Prime Minister was responding to questions at the end of the session from legislator Vincent Van Quickenborne (Anders). His remarks came a day after an interview with De Standaard in which he said the flexi-job system was “going off the rails.”
Van Peteghem pointed to what he called several injustices and contradictions in the current rules. Workers in flexi-jobs do not pay social security contributions, yet they continue to accumulate pension rights. By contrast, student workers do pay contributions, but those payments do not give them pension rights. Van Peteghem described the difference as “pure Kafka” and said bringing the various systems into line was simply common sense.
According to the Budget Minister, the estimated maximum loss linked to flexi-jobs could reach almost €500 million in 2025. He said this would stem from lower tax revenues amounting to €362 million and a further €125 million in lost employee social security contributions.
He acknowledged that employer contributions on flexi-jobs partly offset the losses. However, he warned that the cost would rise further as the scheme is extended to more sectors.
