Nearly Half of Excluded Brussels Jobseekers Turned to a CPAS

Nearly one in two Brussels residents who lost their unemployment benefits in the first quarter of 2026 became a beneficiary of a CPAS — a local public social welfare centre — within three months of their exclusion, according to figures published Friday by Actiris, the Brussels-Capital Region’s public employment service.

The 47.6% figure lays bare the social cost being shifted onto local welfare offices by the federal “Arizona” government’s unemployment reform, which limits benefits over time. It exceeds the government’s own working assumption that only about one third of those excluded would seek social assistance.

The Numbers Behind the Shift

Of the 15,500 people affected by the loss of unemployment benefits in Q1 2026 — in the categories of more than 20 years and more than eight years of unemployment — just 12.6% found a job within three months across all contract types. That proportion drops to 7.1% for contracts lasting 28 days or more. A further 8.9% (1,381 people) moved into the health-invalidity insurance regime.

Actiris attributes the low employment rates to the profile of those concerned. “It is important to specify that the employment rates of these first two waves can be explained by the profile of the jobseekers concerned, who are very distant from employment (more than eight years of inactivity),” the regional employment office said.

The data points to what Actiris describes as “great vulnerability”: 63.6% of those excluded have a low level of education and 39.1% are aged 50 or older. By the end of the first half of 2026, a total of 27,500 Brussels jobseekers had lost their right to unemployment or insertion benefits, and Actiris estimates that about 10,000 more will reach the end of their rights between July 2026 and June 2027.

The impact is unevenly distributed across the region. In proportional terms, the municipalities of Etterbeek (57.8%), Auderghem (53.6%), Brussels-Ville (52.9%) and Saint-Gilles (51.7%) recorded the highest share of people at the end of their rights who joined a CPAS during the first semester.

A Welfare System Under Strain

The figures confirm a trend that CPAS leaders have warned about for months. Unlike unemployment benefits, which are granted automatically as a right, the social integration income (RIS) is a residual right: before granting it, a CPAS must verify that the applicant has no other resources, examining property, savings and household income.

“The CPAS are asking for time, money and a little respect, especially for the social workers,” Dorothée Klein, president of the CPAS of Namur and of the Federation of CPAS of Wallonia, said as the three national CPAS federations pressed federal Social Integration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) for temporary support measures.

Klein also challenged the official narrative around the reform. “The so-called official figures given on the reform do not at all correspond to what we experience on the ground,” she said, calling for reliable monitoring. She described the workload facing staff: “We have social workers each managing 110, 120 files. Obviously it’s not the case in every CPAS, but it exists.”

Myriem Amrani, president of the CPAS of Saint-Gilles, pointed to a compounding administrative burden. “We had to carry out a revision of the integration incomes granted to each household from 1 March. So, on top of the reform that started on 1 January, on 1 March our teams had to revise these rates, which is a colossal administrative burden.”

In March, the CPAS federations estimated the reform could cost CPAS nearly €1 billion by 2029, without federal compensation. In Brussels, the City of Brussels CPAS had already opened three new social offices and hired 38 additional social workers, with its budget rising from €470 million to €522 million between 2025 and 2026.

How the Reform Works

Adopted by the Chamber in July 2025 and in force since 1 March 2026, the reform limits unemployment benefits to a maximum of two years. Anyone who has worked at least one year in the last three gets one year of benefits; each additional four-month period worked grants one more month. People are warned by the National Employment Office (ONEM) in waves, with six waves planned between summer 2025 and the end of June 2027. In total, nearly 168,000 people were expected to be excluded by 1 July 2027, according to federal administration figures.

The reform also introduced a “prime trampoline” (droit au rebond): from 1 March, workers who resigned after 10 years of activity may, once in a career, claim six months of benefits, extendable to 12 months if training for a shortage occupation.

A Partial Legal Setback

On 10 September 2026, the Constitutional Court validated the reform almost in its entirety — with one exception. It annulled a single provision of the programme law of 18 July 2025 that limited certain categories of long-term unemployed, already registered, to less than 12 months of benefits (six, eight or nine months) before exclusion. The court found the distinction discriminatory, ruling that “the fact that workers have already benefited over a long period from unemployment benefits in the past does not justify the difference in treatment” compared with other jobseekers. According to the court’s sources, the decision concerns 99,000 people who were cut off from benefits too early.

Employment Minister David Clarinval (MR) welcomed the ruling, saying the core elements were validated, while acknowledging the court’s remark on the transitional period.

What to Watch

The ONEM’s national analysis paints a more complex picture than the Brussels data alone. In January 2026, of 8,972 long-term unemployed (20+ years) whose rights were stopped, 5.8% found a job. For the larger March wave of 36,584 people (8+ years), 10.2% found employment — double the January rate — though the rate was lowest in Brussels at 8.5%, against 10.7% in Wallonia and 11.8% in Flanders.

The ONEM sees these figures as consistent with the government’s “three-thirds hypothesis,” expecting greater job insertion in later exclusion waves. The Brussels CPAS data, however, suggests that the region’s welfare offices will continue to absorb much of the shock. With roughly 10,000 more Brussels jobseekers due to lose their rights over the coming year — and the Constitutional Court’s ruling reopening questions about the treatment of the long-term unemployed — the pressure on local welfare services shows little sign of easing.