Numéro 2/2001 (.pdf) - FOD Sociale Zekerheid

REVUE BELGE DE SECURITE SOCIALE - 2e TRIMESTRE 2001“Towards a harmonisation of employment disability, health care and family allowancesfor the self employed and employed. Recommendations of a workinggroup of senior civil servants”by Bea CantillonOn 19th May 2000, the government charged a working group of senior civil servants, comprising Messrs. Crop (Ministère de l'Agriculture et des Classes Moyennes),J. De Cock (R.I.Z.I.V.), E. Deloof (Adm. des Affaires sociales), G. Grinberg(I.N.A.M.I.), L. Paeme (R.S.V.Z.), G. Perl (O.N.P.), P. Van der Vorst (O.N.S.S.) and J.Verstraeten (R.K.W.) and under the direction of B. Cantillon (Antwerp University,UFSIA) with a report on the changes that are necessary in the fundamental organisationof the social security as a result of the significant evolution of the economy,working practices and family structures.In the light of institutional and socio-professional considerations, the working groupset out to draw up a working program that would enable it, in the short term, tomake the systems of health care, employment disability and family allowances morein line with demographic and socio-economic developments. For this purpose theywere guided by the following requirements :1. Social security must be based, in a balanced manner, on the principles of insuranceand solidarity;2. Social protection for salaried and self employed should be harmonised withoutdamaging the essential differences that exist in relation to specific professionalgroups;3. Attention must be paid to ensuring that the financial burden is borne equitably;4. Independent social organisations must continue to be involved in delivery andmanagement.The working group recommended to the government that protection in the eventof employment disability should, above all, be improved. At present, that protectionis inadequate to cover loss of income, and the additional costs of medical care. Inthe field of health care, cover for what is called minor risks should, in the shortterm, be generally extended to self employed persons and their dependants. In sodoing, the social protection of self employed persons will be improved, administrativeefficiency will be widened (simplification) and the share of the burden of costbetween the systems will become more transparent.For the family allowances sector, the working group has made several operationalproposals in order to simplify the systems and adapt them to the new socio-demographicsituation and to achieve complete assimilation of the rights and amountsgranted to the children of the employed, the self employed and civil servants. Thegrant of family allowances will thus become uniform and will constitute a substantialstep forward in implementing “children’s rights”.494** *