social security - FOD Sociale Zekerheid

The various sectors of social securityFamily benefitsSalaried persons, self-employed persons and civil servants are all entitled to family benefits.Persons who are not entitled to family benefits from any Belgian, foreign or international scheme,there is a 'guaranteed family benefit' in the social assistance system (see the chapter 'Socialassistance').Family benefits comprise the ordinary child's allowance, the orphan's allowance, the lumpsum allowance for children placed with private persons, the additional allowances (socialallowances, allowances for children suffering from disorders or handicapped children,age allowances, the allowance for single-parent families and a yearly supplement tothe ordinary family benefits and to the orphan's allowance), the maternity fee and theadoption fee. (The amounts are mentioned in D. Benefit types.) Three persons are involved inthe family benefit system: the beneficiary, the qualifying child and the allottee. We discussthese three here.A. BeneficiaryThe beneficiary opens the entitlement to family benefits through his labour as a salariedor self-employed person or civil servant. People who do not work anymore, whether they areunemployed, retired, ill, disabled, interrupting their career or in detention, are also entitled tofamily benefits, on particular conditions. If they meet some other conditions, the unemployed, theretired and the disabled can obtain a social allowance. Furthermore, also on specific conditions,entitlement to family benefits is granted to abandoned spouses, widows or widowers (with asurvivor's pension), students, pupils, young jobseekers in their waiting period, persons with acontract for professional training in a company and the disabled.Suppose there are several beneficiaries within the same family, then a hierarchy is followed todetermine the final beneficiary:1. the orphan;2. the person taking care of the child's upbringing has a priority over he who does not;3. father > mother > stepfather > stepmother > eldest beneficiary4. in case of joint parental authority, a father outside the family always has priority over amother within the family.An important remark is that the definition of the beneficiary is always to the benefit of the child.Given the fact that one obtains less allowance for the first child in the self-employed persons'scheme than in the salaried persons' scheme, a 'salaried worker-mother' (if she has more than ahalf-time employment) shall receive priority over a father who is self-employed. In other words,the salaried persons' scheme has a priority within specific boundaries. The appointment of theeventual beneficiary is important for the payment of family benefits.21