Belgian poverty hits 13pc

17 December 2003

BRUSSELS – Thirteen percent of Belgium’s population is living below the poverty line, according to the Service for the Fight Against Poverty’s latest biannual report.

Ten years after Belgium’s general report on poverty, 13 percent of the population earn less than EUR 8,531 per year, or less than EUR 17,915 for a family with two children.

The report focused on a lack of access to medical services for the poorest members of society, and on the right to decent basic accommodation.

“We are asking for stricter regulation of the rental market… and the introduction of accommodation allocations,” the Service’s assistant coordinator Francoise De Boe, told La Libre Belgique.

Also brought forward in the report was a plea for the right to quality employment and help from social services for all.

According to the report, a short-term solution to Belgium’s poverty will be to re-evaluate the country’s 2002 social integration law, and to render more effective the Federal Consultative Commission on Social Welfare.

Subject: Belgian news