Just under one in 10 employees who have been off sick for less than a year return to work on a part-time basis, according to official data.
In fact, the response to the gradual return-to-work scheme has barely changed over the past three years, figures obtained by Christen Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V) legislator Nahima Lanjri from Social Affairs Minister Frank Vandenbroucke show.
The scheme is designed to help employees return to their company after illness or absence. It allows them to resume work part-time or in a temporarily adapted role, helping them get used to working again while staying involved in the business.
However, the number of people using the measure has risen only slightly in three years.
In 2024, 9.49% of people who had been unable to work because of illness for less than a year returned to work gradually, just one percentage point more than in 2022, Lanjri said.
Among those who had been off work for more than a year, the figure reached 20.3% in 2024, only two percentage points higher than in 2022.
Lanjri said this meant many opportunities were being missed, above all for people unable to work, as leaving them dependent on sickness benefits without certainty or prospects could be especially harmful.
She added that, even at a time of labour shortages and budget pressures, there was every reason to strengthen support to help people move back into the labour market.
Her party wants the issue to be included in the federal budget talks.
“With an employment rate of 80%, our budget problem would be solved,” Lanjri said. “A person who is ill is ill. But we cannot accept people remaining unnecessarily dependent on benefits, nor can we abandon those who still have the potential to work.”
