Illness & Incapacity for Work

Allowance illness

If you cannot work, ask for extra assistance in the form of a social allowance.

Are you entitled to a social allowance?

During the first six months of your illness or incapacity for work, you receive the usual child benefit. When you reach the seventh month, we investigate whether you are entitled to a social allowance on top of the child benefit. You may therefore receive this in the month thereafter. The maximum income depends on your situation.

  • You live together with your partner and children. You are entitled to an allowance if your average gross income per month is not higher than € 2.531,55. You can also work this out easily yourself by adding the amount listed on your assessment notice under ‘Joint taxable income’ to professional expenses and dividing by 12.
  • You live alone with your children. You are entitled to an allowance if your average gross income per month is not higher than € 2.452,41 . You can also work this out easily yourself by adding the amount listed on your assessment notice under ‘Joint taxable income’ to professional expenses and dividing by 12.

How can you apply for a temporary social allowance?

To do so, we send you a form on which you declare all your income from the previous year. Based on what you enter on the form, we calculate your average gross income per month. If the average income is not higher than the amount that applies to you, you receive a temporary social allowance. See which income you should specify using the table below.

Occupational and replacement income
Specify (if applicable) Do not specify
Salaries and service vouchers Luncheon and eco vouchers
Net income as self-employed

(net taxable income x 100/80)

 Child support
Maintenance payments for foster parents (National Employment Office) Living wage
Local employment office (PWA) vouchers Family benefit
Holiday pay Advance holiday pay
Payments – unemployment, career break, time credit, bankruptcy, illness, maternity leave, occupational accidents, occupational illnesses, (bridge) pensions and group insurance Lump-sum fee for custody of unaccompanied foreign minors
Retrospective payments relating to the current year Retrospective payments relating to a previous year
Severance payments relating to the current year Severance payments relating to a previous year
Year-end bonuses Compensation from the Vlaamse Zorgverzekering (Flanders Care Insurance)
Compensation for providing assistance to the elderly
Compensation for providing assistance to third parties
Maintenance costs for foster parents (Kind en Gezin)
Integration allowance for persons with a disability

When do you receive the temporary and definitive allowance?

You receive a temporary allowance as from the month after the day on which you reach the seventh month of illness or incapacity for work. You receive the temporary allowance for the rest of the quarter in question and the entire quarter thereafter. You then continue to receive the allowance if you fulfil all the conditions. Be sure to let us know if you no longer meet all the conditions so you can avoid having to repay any allowances.

Example: Jente (34) becomes incapacitated for work on 3 November 2016 and therefore receives a benefit. She reaches her seventh month of incapacity for work on 3 May 2017. She sends us a form with her income and receives a temporary allowance from June 2017 up to and including September 2017 as, based on the completed form, she earns less than € 2.452,41 gross per month on average. Should Jente continue to receive a benefit, we will also continue to pay the allowance.

We grant the allowance on a permanent basis if we receive notice of your exact income from the tax services. We then also evaluate the previous period and pay you the allowance retrospectively if you did not receive an allowance but were entitled to one. If you received a temporary allowance without being entitled to one, we will ask you to repay the sums.

How much does the additional allowance amount to?

Child Flanders Walloon Region, Brussels-Capital Region & German-speaking Community
First child* € 100,86 € 102,88
Second child € 29,06 € 29,64
Third (or subsequent) child € 5,10 € 5,20
Third (or single-parent family) child € 23,43 € 23,90

* You may also receive an increased age allowance for your first child if the full age allowance is not yet paid out for them. The increased amount is linked to their age.

What if you start working again?

In a number of exceptional cases, we continue to pay the social allowance for a maximum of eight quarters once you start working again.

These are the general conditions:

  • You work as an employee, self-employed person or civil servant.
  • You receive a social allowance.
  • You start working a maximum of 27 days after the last day for which you have received unemployment benefit.

Example: Marianne (69) received a benefit for her incapacity for work up to and including 31 March. On 1 April, the National Employment Office decided that she can no longer receive benefits. She may, however, be entitled to an allowance from us for a further eight quarters if she returns to work before 29 April.

 

  • Your employment may not be interrupted for a period longer than 27 calendar days.

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