Research project AP/16 (Research action AP)
Minimum benefits under Belgium’s social security system are today automatically linked to price evolutions by means of the so-called health index. This indexation was in the past no guarantee for the purchasing power and welfare position of the social minima. Between the mid-1980s and the late 1990s, virtually all statutory minima under Belgium’s social security system fell behind the general increase in welfare. Then a trend break occurred: between 2000 and 2005 most minimum benefits for employees and social assistance were raised. This substantially raised base-level protection in our welfare state between 2000 and 2003.
In early 2004, the Belgian government decided that, as of 2007, these benefits would also be adjusted biennially to evolutions in the general level of welfare. In the proposed research, we intend to ascertain to what extent the social minima in the reference countries for Belgium’s wage standard – i.e. Germany, France and the Netherlands – keep abreast of welfare evolutions and by which means. What can we learn from the policies pursued in these countries in relation to welfare adjusted social benefits? Which systems can be applied, and what are their respective benefits and drawbacks?
The proposed research consists of three parts:
First and foremost, we ascertain whether Belgium’s system guarantees purchasing power and welfare adjusted social minima. We consider the social minima for the unemployed, the disabled, the old-age and survivor pensioners and social assistance recipients. In this research we shall evaluate whether the trend of the early ‘90s proceeds after 2003; whether the social minima have kept up with welfare and purchasing power after the occasional increases in 2000-2005. We assess the minima for both employees and self-employed. The analysis considers the evolution of gross and net benefits. For the latter we use the “model family approach”.
In the second part, we compare these evolutions with purchasing power and welfare trends of the social minima in Germany, France and the Netherlands. The data collection for this part shall be entrusted to national informants.
In the final chapter, we consider the most recent policy developments in these countries vis-à-vis social benefits, and specifically in relation to the mechanisms that they apply for adjusting the social minima to purchasing power and welfare evolutions on a regular basis. The description will proceed on the basis of the Mutual Information System on Social Protection in the Member States of the European Union (MISSOC), as well as national policy and other documents. These adjustment mechanisms shall be placed in the broader context of minimum benefit policies. Legal adjustment mechanisms have, after all, little predictive value in relation to the actual evolution of income protection. There would, after all, appear to be many ways to bypass such adjustment mechanisms.
De welvaartsevolutie van de bodembescherming in België en de ons omringende landen : eindrapport
Brussel : Federaal Wetenschapsbeleid, 2007 (SP1771)
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De welvaartsevolutie van de bodembescherming in België en de ons omringende landen : samenvatting
Brussel : Federaal Wetenschapsbeleid, 2007 (SP1790)
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L’évolution du taux de bien-être de la protection de base en Belgique et dans nos pays frontaliers : résumé
Bruxelles : Politique scientifique fédérale, 2007 (SP1791)
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The purchasing power evolution of minimum income protection in Belgium and in neighbouring countries : summary
Brussels : Federal Science Policy, 2007 (SP1792)
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