Unemployment

If you have lost your job through no fault of your own, you may be entitled to unemployment benefit. You must be able to prove you have worked for a certain number of days in Belgium or abroad. The exact number you need to have worked depends on how old you are. How much you actually receive depends on your last wage.

See the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue’s website for an explanatory table and information about unemployment benefit (FR/NL)External link.

You should apply for unemployment benefit in person at an unemployment benefit payment body: the Caisse Auxiliaire de Paiement des Allocations de Chômage (FR/NL)External link (auxiliary unemployment benefit fund, CAPAC) or your union.

When you register you receive a control card, which you need to complete and send in every month. You must also fill out the C1 form to declare your “personal and family” situation. This declaration has important consequences for whether you receive benefits and if so how much they are.

You then have to notify Actiris that you are registered at an unemployment benefit payment body (CAPAC or union).

You are not entitled to unemploment benefit if you have just left school. You will have to wait out a professional integration period, which starts when you finish your full-time studies or apprenticeship contract and you register as a jobseeker at Actiris.

You must apply for benefit at the CAPAC (FR/NL)External link or your union at the end of your professional integration period, but before your 25th birthday. You should also get 2 positive reviews of your job search efforts from Actiris.

For full details on the professional integration period and integration benefits for young school-leavers FR/NL)External link see the ONEM (National Employment Office) website.