Flanders abolished its parental leave incentive for people on the so-called corona leave introduced by the federal government in May, De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad reported on Monday.
The reasoning is that people risked earning more money due to this specific parental leave than by working.
The federal government introduced a more attractive form of parental leave with the aim of enabling parents during and after confinement to better combine work and childcare, making the allowance 25% higher than for ordinary parental leave.
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By abolishing the so-called incentive bonus that taxpayers normally receive for parental leave in Flanders, the federal government’s coronavirus leave allowance is effectively neutralised.
A person under 50 years of age on part-time coronavirus parental leave receives 594.48 euros, while he or she will receive 597.76 euros in the case of ordinary parental leave. People working in the social sector may even miss out on a total of up to 1,000 euros, according to newspaper calculations.
In Flanders, 26,288 parents have taken such corona parental leave.
The Brussels Times
