Sun, 22 November 2009
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Includes geography, people, government, economy and transnational issues.
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Joining the Belgian social security system is bureaucratic, but not difficult. Here is a brief guide to everything - from contributions to payouts.Joining the Belgian Social Security system is bureaucratic, but not difficult.
The first thing to do is to visit www.socialsecurity.fgov.be for a 64-page brochure ‘Everything you have always wanted to know about social security’. This tells you about the structure of the system and your entitlements. There are separate rules and separate institutions for the salaried, the self-employed and civil servants. If you are employed, your employer will likely take care of the formalities and deduct contributions from your wages. Salaried are covered for seven sectors (medical care, unemployment, pension, family, accident, work-related injury, vacation).
If you are self-employed you will start by paying a minimum quarterly contribution which increases at the same rate as your income. It’s important to know that contributions are calculated on what you earned three years previously. You will need to sign up with one of a number of specialised organisations or a health insurance company mutuelle/mutualiteits, who act as collection agencies for the national social security offices. Once registered, they will send you a Social Security Identity Card (SIS) which is needed to get prescription drugs and other medical services. From January 2008, the law changed to cover the self-employed for petits risques/kleine risico’s. This means you can now claim for doctor appointments, dentists and prescriptions in the same way as the salaried. Naturally, this doesn’t come without financial implications and contributions are increasing from 19.65% of income to 22%. The increase will be staged over four years.
International co-operation
There are EU rules designed to maintain entitlement to national benefits for EU citizens working in other EU countries. For a short-stay it is often best to take advantage of these especially if you plan to return to the home country directly after your current stay. There are specialised offices in each EU country for further advice.
This handy guide from Expertise in Labour Mobility includes how to write a CV, application procedure, interview dos and don'ts, Belgian management culture.
Belgium’s first alternative directory assistance services - available through the shortcode 14-14 - can now be accessed on the internet.
Moving to Belgium presents a host of challenges to expats, not least of all finding the right home.
The psychological effects of global mobility can be physically painful.
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