Only two job seekers lost benefits in 2022: “Sanction policy too weak” | Inland

A total of 15,170 job seekers were checked by the VDAB this year. As a result of the checks, 6,225 sanctions were handed out. In addition to the two permanent losses of the benefit, 32 times the benefit was reduced to the level of the living wage and 29 times it was (temporarily) suspended.

According to Malfroot, the limited number of sanctions on benefits is also related to the savings of the Flemish government. The employment service has to make do with 22 million euros less and 419 staff members have to be made redundant during this term of office. At the same time, the tasks of the central labor market director have expanded considerably in recent years.

“With an ever-increasing workload and additional savings, it is unfeasible for VDAB to adequately perform its tasks,” says Malfroot. “If the Flemish government takes the target of 80 percent employment rate seriously, it will have to provide the VDAB with extra resources to be able to perform its task as a career director. A strict control and sanctioning policy is an important element in the activation of job seekers. ”

Flanders currently has 182,000 unemployed job seekers and 400,000 unfilled vacancies. According to Vlaams Belang politician Malfroot, the current control and sanctioning policy is “simply too weak to encourage job seekers to go to work”. “Anyone who is unemployed through no fault of their own must, of course, be able to temporarily call on our social security. With a historically high number of unfilled vacancies, it should, on the other hand, be possible for most people to find a job within a reasonable period of time,” concludes. malfroot.