Social Assistance in Belgium

1
Social Assistance in Belgium

• A brief historical overview
• And what does Social Assistance look like today?

2
Contents of presentation

• Short historical overview of the development of
  policies to fight poverty in Western Europe from
  the late middle ages until today
• Presentation of current situation in Belgium
• Data from the national 2003 report Poverty and
  Social Exclusion
• Data from the Social Assistance service of the
  Belgian semi-rural commune of Kruibeke (15,000
  inhabitants)
• Lessons for developing countries?

3
Poverty relief in Europe of the 13th-15th
century

• Charity prevails
• Attempts to control beggarship
• Ordonnance by Philippe the Good (August 14th
  1459) Only children, elderly and persons with
  young children under their care are allowed to
  beg to the extent that they have a begpenny
  delivered by the commune

4
Reforms in the 16th-17th century

• Cities and municipalities confronted with
  increasing poverty
• Edict by Charles V (October 7th 1531)
• Every commune is to centralise the funds
  available for poverty relief in a common purse
• Physically valid poor forced to work
• Control the ravages of gambling and alcohol
  consumption
• Interdiction of begging and vaggrancy
• Decision by the Antwerp city council (February
  4th 1613) to lock up beggars and vagabonds and
  enforce them a harsh regime of labour

5
The dream of the French revolution

• Principles of social assistance
• Need for measures to prevent poverty (e.g.
  through large-scale public works)
• Social assistance is a right
• The poor should get free health care
• For the healthy poor assistance par le travail
• Fight against begging

6
The reality

• Creation in 1796 of Civil Houses of God and
  Charity Offices that have their own
  administration, patrimonium and funding the
  State withdraws from direct support to the poor

7
The case of BelgiumFrom Charity Offices to
Public Centres of Social Welfare

• Law of March 1836
• Autonomous Charity Office in each municipality
• Law of March 1925
• Transformation of Charity Office into Commission
  of Public Assistance (CPA)
• Central funding!
• Laws of August 1974 July 1976
• Concept of Minimum of Existence is introduced
• CPAs transformed into Public Centres of Social
  Welfare (PSCW)

8
First half of 20th centurythe development of
the modern Welfare State

• Centrally managed Social Security Systems with
  four pillars (December 28th 1944)
• Working accidents
• Disease Disability
• Pensions
• Unemployment
• Development of residual regimes (60s and 70s)
• Guaranteed income for elderly (1969)
• Allowances for disabled (1969)
• Allowances for children (1971)
• Minimum of existence (1974)

9
The law of May 2002 The Right on Societal
Integration

• This law guarantees every citizen the right to
  participate in societal life
• strong focus on paid work as privileged means to
  achieve this integration
• From Minimum of Existence to Living Wage
• The 2002 Law implies a specific coaching
  responsibility of the PCSW vis-à-vis young people
  (lt25 years)
• obligation to find them a job or establish an
  Individualised Project of Social Integration

10
Living wage current amounts (1/6/2003)

• Person living alone 600 Euro/month
• One-parent household with children 800
  Euro/month
• One-parent household with co-parentship 700
  Euro/month
• Persons living together (age gt18 yr) 400
  Euro/month/person
• Note 50 of these amounts paid by federal govt
  50 by local government

11
The development of social assistance in Europe
some significant features

• A long history with many (often unsuccesfull)
  attempts of reform and with long periods of
  relative status quo
• Gradual process of centralisation of
  decision-making and shift of Social Assistance
• from charity to public service
• from privilege to right
• An accelerated evolution in the first half of the
  20th century

12
The current situation of poverty and poverty
relief in Belgium

• Social Assistance is an effective but
  nevertheless leaking safety net

13
A few highlights from the 2003 Report on Poverty
and Social Exclusion in Belgium

• Number of poor in Belgium? The figure varies from
  7 of population (700.000 people) in estimates
  from federal government up to 13 of population
  by Eurostat (1.3 million people)
• In January 2003, 400,000 people in Belgium
  received a subsistence allowance of some kind
• 78.000 individuals on living wage
• 100.000 elderly income guarantee
• 217.000 allowance for disabled people
• ...

14
Number of people with a Living Wage (LW) in
Belgium (1990-2003)
15
Poverty and health (care)

• Despite the system of the maximum bill in our
  social health insurance system, 10 of Belgian
  families delay utilisation of health care
  services because of lack of money

16
The maximum bill per year in the Belgian
social health insurance system
17
Current trends

• Attempts to reduce the stigma related to the use
  of Social Assistance services the emerging
  concept of the Social House
• Increasing appeal to involve experience experts
  (i.e. the poor themselves) in public poverty
  reduction policies
• Organisations involved in fight against poverty
  ask for more resources, but, at the same time,
  increasing voices in the political arena that
  prejudice the poor...
• Increasing success of foodbanks charity
  revisited?

18
The case of the Kruibeke Public Centre of Social
Welfare (PSCW)

• Kruibeke a semi-rural municipality of 15.000
  inhabitants in the province of East Flanders

19
Organigram PCSW Kruibeke
20
Expenditure PCSW Kruibeke 2003
21
Criteria for allocation of social assistance
benefits (incl. living wage) to clients by
social workers of PCSW Kruibeke

• Objective criteria
• Income/ Financial situation (debts)
• Family status
• Age
• Housing (home-visits!)
• Past history
• Subjective criteria
• Personal appreciation by social worker (the
  gut)

• Mechanisms in place to balance objective and
  subjective assessments
• Opinion of other social workers in the team
  (peers)
• Clearance head of team of Social Workers
• The (political) Council

22
A political body has authority to overrule the
proposal formulated by social assistantsIn
practice gt95 of advice formulated by Soc Ass is
accepted

• Pros
• The clients case needs to be thoroughly prepared
  for approval by non-professionals
• Saveguarding of relationship client- Soc Ass in
  case of negative judgment by Council
• Control on abuse of power by Soc Ass
• Politicians and their constituency are
  informed on how local tax money is being used

• Cons
• Risk of clientelism
• Expertise of Councillors is not warranted
• May delay the provision of social assistance
• The Soc Ass may be entrusted with tasks that are
  not feasible or tasks she/he personnaly is not
  backing up

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Some lessons for developing countries? (1)

• Social Assistance requires a specific expertise
  in terms of skills and attitudes that health
  workers do not (necessarily) possess social
  workers are professionals!
• Identification of the poor (passive case-finding
  , active case-finding /-)
• Provision of support financial, material,
  psychological, emotional
• Negotiation on behalf of their clients of a broad
  range of social services and benefits
• When necessary, long-term follow-up in the frame
  of a personalised relationship in which privacy
  is safeguarded

25
Some lessons for developing countries? (2)

• Next to a minority of destitute households for
  which the need of Social Assistance is
  quasi-permanent, many households are confronted
  in the course of their life with recurrent
  periodic needs for Social Assistance

26
Some lessons for developing countries? (3)

• In Social Assistance policies there is need to
  carefully balance the attention for individual
  responsibilities of clients and the need to
  address structural determinants of poverty

27
Some lessons for developing countries? (4)

• Stigma and other barriers in accessing Social
  Assistance services are (remain?) very difficult
  to completely overcome

28
Sources

• Bos S (1998).  Uyt liefde tot malcander 
  Onderlinge hulpverlening binnen de
  Noord-Nederlandse gilden in internationaal
  perspectief (1570-1820), Stichting beheer IISG,
  Amsterdam.
• Luyten D (1988). De evolutie in de bestrijding
  van de armoede, Welzijnsgids - Noden I.A.3.2,
  Afl. 38
• Armoede en sociale uitsluiting, Jaarboek 2003,
  Vranken J, De Boyser K Dierckx D (red.), Acco
  Leuven / Leusden
• Bart Myttenaere (2003). In vrije val Armoede in
  België. Uitgeverij Manteau / Standaard
  Uitgeverij.
• Records of the Public Centre of Social Welfare
  ((Openbaar Centrum voor Maatschappelijk Welzijn
  (OCMW)) of the Kruibeke municipality