Tougher approach to unemployed

15 March 2007

BRUSSELS – The Walloon region handed 9,106 dossiers of unemployed people unwilling to take jobs to the National Employment Office (RVA) last year. The RVA penalised 2,157 of these individuals.

The system of regional-federal cooperation to encourage the chronic unemployed to find work is working, says the federal minister for employment, Peter Vanvelthoven (SP.A).

In the context of this cooperation the regional employment offices (the VDAB in Flanders, the Forem in Wallonia, and the BGDA in Brussels) pass on the dossiers of unemployed people unwilling to find work to the federal RVA office, which investigates the dossiers and penalises people if necessary.

The system came into full swing especially in the second half of 2006. The VDAB passed on 629 dossiers in 2005, followed by 6,270 last year.

The RVA processed 63 percent of the dossiers, and in 54 percent of those cases the unemployed individual suffered a temporary suspension of benefits.

The increase was even more dramatic in Wallonia. In 2005 the Forem handed over only 280 dossiers, followed by an astonishing 9,106 in 2006. The RVA processed 57 percent of these dossiers, which led to sanctions in 41 percent of those cases.

Brussels continues to score poorly. It only handed on 1,125 dossiers to the RVA, and 389 individuals were penalised.

Subject: Belgian news