A social top-up was granted last year to 128,222 children in Brussels, covering 42% of those entitled to family allowances in the capital, according to Iriscare.
The Brussels agency, which is in charge of such payouts, said 304,966 children were entitled to family allowances in December last year.
In 2025, the basic family allowance in the Brussels-Capital Region ranged from €174.06 to €211.36 per child per month.
The amount depends on the child’s age and, for young people aged 18 to 24, on whether or not they are in higher education.
Families meeting certain conditions can receive a social top-up in addition to the basic allowance. Eligibility for the top-up is based on household income, total cadastral income, family composition and the child’s age.
Iriscare said the 2025 figures were provisional. Final data will only be available in 2027, once the Federal Finance Department has provided the tax information needed to automatically verify whether families were entitled to the social top-up.
According to Iriscare, this check can still significantly affect the figures. For 2023, the share of children receiving a social top-up rose from 42.1% in the provisional figures to 57.5% after the final data was processed.
For 2020, 2021 and 2022, the increases after final verification were 14.6%, 14.9% and 18% respectively.
Iriscare said the automatic check also makes it possible to identify children whose parents did not declare their income themselves, but who were nevertheless entitled to the additional support.
The highest percentages of children receiving a social top-up were recorded in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Anderlecht, the City of Brussels and Schaerbeek.
