2023-09-25 04:39:00
The picture is very dark. The socialist mutuality Solidaris has dissected the profile of the unemployed. Three major findings emerge from this study revealed in La Libre. First, the unemployed have a weakened socio-economic position. An eloquent example: 60.9% of the unemployed have BIM status (beneficiary of increased intervention), compared to 50.6% of disabled people (and 3.5% of workers).
Second, their health status is generally worse than that of workers. Their three-year mortality rate is 1.17%, compared to 0.45% for active workers (the analysis stops at 2019 figures so as not to be distorted by the Covid crisis). In other words, the unemployed are 2.6 times more likely to die within three years than workers, all ages combined.
Finally, the unemployed use health care (first line and preventive care) less than workers and, therefore, “they are exposed to heavier and longer illnesses”, deplores Jean Pascal Labille, secretary general of Solidaris. “All indicators show that being unemployed is not paradise as some people make you believe. There are roughly 284,000 unemployed people in Belgium, 160,000 beneficiaries of social integration income (RIS), and Frank Vandenbroucke (Federal Minister of Health – Vooruit) wants to put 20,000 disabled people back to work per year. You add it up, that’s 464,000 people. But there are 200,000 vacant jobs… We are in a completely crazy equation. Over time, we see a liberal doctrine that is hardening. First against the unemployed. Now against the sick.”
This doctrine is infused on the left too, right? It is Frank Vandenbroucke, a Flemish socialist, who is leading the project on the return to work of long-term sick people.
Yes, this percolates strongly among the proponents of this doctrine. And sometimes also among the supporters of what we call the active social state. I am well aware of this.
What do you propose ?
Work is a vector of emancipation. Most of the unemployed just want to find work under normal conditions. We are calling for integrating the health and psychological dimension into supporting the unemployed, especially for the long-term unemployed. We must have almost individual support to take into account the person’s situation and help them get back to work. It is not by making her feel guilty or reducing her income that she will achieve this. In any case, if she is not able to return to work, she will not return.
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We must stop the sanctions policies, which come from this Protestant morality where you have to hurt yourself… It is useless and all the studies show it.
Limitation of unemployment benefits: where are the profiteers?
Organizations responsible for getting people back to work, such as Forem, already offer individualized support.
It’s happening, but I think we need to do it more, and mutual funds can help. The second thing to do is to raise awareness among employers so that people can find quality jobs. We see that almost all the long-term unemployed have to make do with small jobs, with contracts that are never long enough for them to get back into professional life. We need to extend the duration of contracts. Finally, we must stop the sanctions policies, which come from this Protestant morality where you have to hurt yourself… It is useless and all the studies show it. If it worked, we’d know. A long-term unemployed person who does not benefit from social, health and psychological support is a potential invalid.
More and more political parties want to limit unemployment over time, sometimes with automatic return to employment. Is this a good measure?
It’s a bit moralistic. Work is a right, it should not become an obligation. We need to support people, put them back into the work circuit, but not in a coercive way. If we recycled the resources put into controls to devote them to support, we would provide much more service to the population and the state budget than what we are doing now.
”Refederalize Health? You have to keep your feet on the ground. We are in a country that does not allow this kind of thing”
Many businesses are struggling to find workers. What should be done to motivate the unemployed to take these available jobs?
Improve working conditions, and not just financial conditions. People want to balance their private and professional lives. They want to find meaning in their work – a phenomenon that is growing – and to have the feeling that what they do is useful and recognized as such. And there is also a training problem. The attractiveness of professions is linked to salary, but not only. Working conditions are fundamental. One of the primary reasons why people become incapacitated is the arduousness of the work.
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