Transcript Social Assistance in Belgium

Social Assistance in Belgium
A brief historical overview
And what does Social Assistance look like today?
20-7-2015
Social Assistance Belgium (B.Criel)
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Contents of presentation
• Short historical overview of the development of
policies to fight poverty in Western Europe from
the late middle ages until today
• Presentation of current situation in Belgium
– Data from the national 2003 report ‘Poverty and Social
Exclusion’
– Data from the Social Assistance service of the Belgian
semi-rural commune of Kruibeke (15,000 inhabitants)
• Lessons for developing countries?
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Poverty relief in Europe of the
13th-15th century
• Charity prevails
• Attempts to control beggarship
• Ordonnance by Philippe the Good (August
14th 1459): “Only children, elderly and persons
with young children under their care are allowed
to beg – to the extent that they have a ‘begpenny’
delivered by the commune”
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Reforms in the 16th-17th century
• Cities and municipalities confronted with increasing
poverty
• Edict by Charles V (October 7th 1531):
– Every commune is to centralise the funds available for poverty
relief in a ‘common purse’
– Physically valid poor forced to work
– Control the ravages of gambling and alcohol consumption
– Interdiction of begging and vaggrancy
• Decision by the Antwerp city council (February 4th 1613)
to lock up beggars and vagabonds and enforce them a
harsh regime of labour
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The dream of the French
revolution
• Principles of social assistance:
– Need for measures to prevent poverty (e.g.
through large-scale public works)
– Social assistance is a right
– The poor should get free health care
– For the healthy poor: assistance par le travail
– Fight against begging
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The reality
• Creation in 1796 of ‘Civil Houses of God’
and ‘Charity Offices’ that have their own
administration, patrimonium and funding:
the State withdraws from direct support to
the poor
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The case of Belgium:
From ‘Charity Offices’ to ‘Public Centres of
Social Welfare’
• Law of March 1836:
– Autonomous Charity Office in each municipality
• Law of March 1925:
– Transformation of Charity Office into ‘Commission of
Public Assistance’ (CPA)
– Central funding!
• Laws of August 1974 & July 1976
– Concept of ‘Minimum of Existence’ is introduced
– CPAs transformed into Public Centres of Social Welfare
(PSCW)
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First half of 20th century:
the development of the modern
Welfare State
• Centrally managed Social Security Systems with four
pillars (December 28th 1944):
–
–
–
–
Working accidents
Disease & Disability
Pensions
Unemployment
• Development of residual regimes (60’s and 70’s)
–
–
–
–
Guaranteed income for elderly (1969)
Allowances for disabled (1969)
Allowances for children (1971)
Minimum of existence (1974)
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The law of May 2002:
The Right on Societal Integration
• This law guarantees every citizen the “right to
participate in societal life”
– strong focus on paid work as privileged means to
achieve this integration
– From ‘Minimum of Existence’ to “Living Wage”
• The 2002 Law implies a specific coaching
responsibility of the PCSW vis-à-vis young people
(<25 years)
– obligation to find them a job or establish an
“Individualised Project of Social Integration”
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Living wage
current amounts (1/6/2003)
•
•
•
•
Person living alone: 600 Euro/month
One-parent household with children: 800 Euro/month
One-parent household with co-parentship: 700 Euro/month
Persons living together (age >=18 yr): 400
Euro/month/person
Note: 50% of these amounts paid by federal govt; 50% by
local government
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The development of social assistance in
Europe: some significant features
• A long history with many (often unsuccesfull)
attempts of reform and with long periods of
relative status quo
• Gradual process of centralisation of decisionmaking and shift of Social Assistance
– from charity to public service
– from privilege to right
• An accelerated evolution in the first half of the
20th century
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The current situation of poverty
and poverty relief in Belgium
Social Assistance is an effective but
nevertheless leaking safety net
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A few highlights from the 2003 Report on
Poverty and Social Exclusion in Belgium
• Number of poor in Belgium? The figure varies from
7% of population (700.000 people) in estimates from
federal government up to 13% of population by
Eurostat (1.3 million people)
• In January 2003, 400,000 people in Belgium received
a subsistence allowance of some kind:
–
–
–
–
78.000 individuals on living wage
100.000 elderly income guarantee
217.000 allowance for disabled people
...
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Number of people with a ‘Living Wage’ (LW)
in Belgium (1990-2003)
90000
80000
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
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Poverty and health (care)
Despite the system of the maximum bill in
our social health insurance system, 10% of
Belgian families delay utilisation of health
care services because of lack of money
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The ‘maximum bill’ per year in the
Belgian social health insurance system
Ceiling in co-payments (Euro)
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Income range
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Current trends
• Attempts to reduce the stigma related to the use of Social
Assistance services: the emerging concept of the ‘Social
House’
• Increasing appeal to involve “experience experts” (i.e. the
poor themselves) in public poverty reduction policies
• Organisations involved in fight against poverty ask for
more resources, but, at the same time, increasing voices in
the political arena that prejudice the poor...
• Increasing success of foodbanks: charity revisited?
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The case of the Kruibeke Public
Centre of Social Welfare (PSCW)
Kruibeke: a semi-rural municipality
of 15.000 inhabitants in the province
of East Flanders
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Organigram PCSW Kruibeke
Public Center Social Welfare -KRUIBEKE
COUNCIL
(9 councillors)
SECRETARY
TREASURER
GENERAL
SOCIAL
RESTHOME
RESTHOME
RESTHOME
TECHNICAL
ADMINISTRATION
SERVICE
ALTENA
MERCATOR
WISSEKERKE
SERVICE
Cleaning
« Village house »
« Village house »
Local Shelter
Service
Rupelmonde
Kruibeke
for political
Central kitchen
refugees
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Expenditure PCSW Kruibeke
2003
Activity centers
Central
administration
Various forms of
social assistance
Various other social
services
Elderly houses
Total
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Expenditure
2003 (Euro)
Relative
proportion
Average
expenditure/
inhabitant
Kruibeke (Euro)
882.000
9,7%
58,8
1.900.000
20,9%
126,7
600.000
5.700.000
9.082.000
6,6%
62,8%
100,0%
40,0
380,0
605,5
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Criteria for allocation of social assistance
benefits (incl. living wage) to ‘clients’ by
social workers of PCSW Kruibeke
• Objective criteria
– Income/ Financial situation
(debts)
– Family status
– Age
– Housing (home-visits!)
– Past history
• Subjective criteria
• Mechanisms in place to
balance objective and
subjective assessments
– Opinion of other social workers
in the team (peers)
– Clearance head of team of Social
Workers
– The (political) Council
– Personal appreciation by social
worker (the ‘gut’)
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A political body has authority to overrule the
proposal formulated by social assistants
In practice >95% of advice formulated by Soc Ass is accepted
• Pro’s
• Con’s
– The client’s case needs to be
thoroughly prepared for approval by
non-professionals
– Saveguarding of relationship clientSoc Ass in case of negative
judgment by Council
– Control on abuse of power by Soc
Ass
– Politicians – and their constituency
– are informed on how local tax
money is being used
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– Risk of clientelism
– Expertise of Councillors is not
warranted
– May delay the provision of
social assistance
– The Soc Ass may be entrusted
with tasks that are not feasible
or tasks she/he personnaly is
not backing up
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1998
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1999
2000
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2001
2002
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Some lessons for developing
countries? (1)
• Social Assistance requires a specific expertise in terms
of skills and attitudes that health workers do not
(necessarily) possess: social workers are professionals!
– Identification of the poor (passive case-finding ++, active
case-finding +/-)
– Provision of support: financial, material, psychological,
emotional…
– Negotiation on behalf of their clients of a broad range of
social services and benefits
– When necessary, long-term follow-up in the frame of a
personalised relationship in which privacy is safeguarded
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Some lessons for developing
countries? (2)
• Next to a minority of destitute households
for which the need of Social Assistance is
quasi-permanent, many households are
confronted in the course of their life with
recurrent periodic needs for Social
Assistance
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Some lessons for developing
countries? (3)
• In Social Assistance policies there is need to
carefully balance the attention for individual
responsibilities of ‘clients’ and the need to
address structural determinants of poverty
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Some lessons for developing
countries? (4)
• Stigma and other barriers in accessing
Social Assistance services are (remain?)
very difficult to completely overcome
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Sources
• Bos S (1998). « Uyt liefde tot malcander » Onderlinge
hulpverlening binnen de Noord-Nederlandse gilden in
internationaal perspectief (1570-1820), Stichting beheer IISG,
Amsterdam.
• Luyten D (1988). De evolutie in de bestrijding van de armoede,
Welzijnsgids - Noden I.A.3.2, Afl. 38
• Armoede en sociale uitsluiting, Jaarboek 2003, Vranken J, De
Boyser K & Dierckx D (red.), Acco Leuven / Leusden
• Bart Myttenaere (2003). In vrije val: Armoede in België.
Uitgeverij Manteau / Standaard Uitgeverij.
• Records of the Public Centre of Social Welfare ((Openbaar
Centrum voor Maatschappelijk Welzijn (OCMW)) of the
Kruibeke municipality
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