Employment ministers want to create a “not available” jobseeker status

Employment ministers want to create a “not available” jobseeker status

The federal, regional and municipal employment ministers have agreed on the creation of a temporary statute of “not available” jobseekers, a category that would cover people with medical, mental, psychological or psychiatric problems, making them little, or even not at all, employable. The subject has been discussed during a meeting of the inter-ministerial Employment Conference, at the invitation of the Walloon Minister Pierre-Yves Jeholet, who has brought together the regional, federal and municipal ministers in charge of this competency. Mr. Jeholet has been instructed by his colleagues to set up a working group that will define the modalities of this status.

The number of people concerned in Belgium is by no means negligible: between 8,000 and 12,500, according to an estimate provided by Mr. Jeholet’s cabinet. A specific status would avoid having to submit them to conventional inspection by employment offices and would facilitate a differentiated support. It would be temporary: 2 years renewable in principle.

The care of this public is regularly questioned. In 2011, a classification by the FOREM, dividing jobseekers into four categories, had sparked controversy. The CPAS and the Christian Union had expressed their fear of seeing the last category, the farthest from employment, sent back to the CPAS.


The Brussels Times


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