Only five people in compulsory community service for the unemployed | Domestic

The intention is that everyone who has been without work for two years will be forced to work. They must perform certain tasks at least one and a maximum of two days a week for six months. They receive 1.30 euros per hour on top of their benefits, a symbolic compensation because the Constitutional Court had previously ruled that otherwise it would be forced labor.

Ultimately, 94 local authorities participate. Together they will offer 819 jobs – ‘apprenticeships’ in the jargon – to the unemployed. The European stimulus money used to finance the places has convinced many municipalities.

But it now appears that there are currently only five people working in the system. “There are many more, three hundred, who are doing internships at local authorities, but there are far too few specifically within the criteria set for community service,” Brouns admitted in parliament. “The evaluation is therefore necessary. We are going to do that too.”

According to Brouns, the selection criteria are too strict. “It is important to look at the specific criteria together with VDAB. Why does it have to take two years before one is eligible for this? Why only in education, in local authorities or non-profit organizations? Why not go much wider?”

“I think there should be a focus on community service,” Maurits Vande Reyde of Open VLD responded in parliament. “That has been a very long journey. You introduced that, all respect for that. But we must continue on that path. If local authorities beg to direct people to that community service, if there are 816 places available out of a total group of 37,000 and there are three or about eighty, then that is very little at the moment.”