Brussels Welfare System Under Scrutiny: Balancing Fraud Prevention and Social Support

In a recent publication, La Dernière Heure revealed the case of a Belgian woman who was benefiting from social housing, as well as health insurance and a disability allowance in Brussels, while she had been working for years as a lawyer in Morocco. "The social system is a sieve, we now have a completely defective control system that is costing the community millions of euros," Georges-Louis Bouchez, the president of the MR, had reacted following this publication. The president of the Brussels CPAS assures that the aid granted to the person concerned was suspended as soon as the fraud was discovered, a few months ago.

"There may be things that the CPAS do not see, but we need the means to carry out the most rigorous checks possible. We recently detected a fraud thanks to the very advanced accounting knowledge of one of our social workers, but without her skills, we probably would not have seen it. In addition to social workers, we also need trained personnel dedicated to the fight against fraud and who have links with the justice system. But just because we have a driver who runs a red light doesn’t mean we’re going to fine all the law-abiding drivers, it’s the same for social fraud with beneficiaries. We must not stigmatize the entire system," he explains.

The federation of CPAS is crystal clear on the subject. "Social fraud in the CPAS is really minimal. And it is much less important than tax fraud, for example. Moreover, in terms of costs for society, for a social fraud to have a major impact, it must have been going on for years or it must concern a huge number of cases, since the amounts of aid are never astronomical," says Georgy Manalis, director of the federation of Brussels CPAS. And he continues: "Obviously, this kind of case provokes a reaction from politicians and citizens, which is quite normal, but we are very far from a sieve. We already have a lot of tools, for example a person who refuses to provide information or to be present on several occasions during the social investigation loses their right to aid."

However, he admits, "fraud remains fraud and we must fight against it. To do this, we need the means." In this vein, the president of the MR stated that he wanted "to condition a series of agreements on criteria for the exchange of information between States." This is one of the difficulties faced by the CPAS. "For a Belgian, there is the Crossroads Bank which already provides a lot of information, but for foreigners, it is more complicated. Outside the Schengen area, it is the border police who often notify us of regular departures from the territory. Beyond a month outside Belgium, aid is normally suspended," it is specified. The unemployment insurance reform is likely to exacerbate the situation.