MR President Georges-Louis Bouchez stated he is “totally in favor” of bringing back daily in-person checks for unemployed people and welfare recipients during a Q&A session with RTL Info on Tuesday.
One question submitted to RTL asked why politicians hadn’t proposed returning to the daily check-in system for unemployed people and welfare recipients that Belgium used for decades, as reinstating the system could help authorities detect undeclared work among benefit recipients.
Under the former system, unemployed workers had to report their status in person regularly so authorities could verify they were still unemployed and available for work. That model was gradually scaled back and was eventually replaced by newer forms of monitoring in the ‘90s and 2000s.
Bouchez fully backed the proposal, stating he had actually discussed the issue earlier that morning with the director of a Public Centre for Social Action. He said people receiving social benefits, particularly those able to work, should be staying in Belgium while they look for jobs. He backed this concern by saying that "a number of people who receive social benefits live abroad several months of the year."
