A Plan Bureau report indicates that under the De Wever government, the risk of poverty among pensioners will rise overall. Vlaams Belang member of parliament Ellen Samyn said every pensioner will have to concede, with the amount remaining to be seen; the Plan Bureau’s data imply the current pension reform will lower average gross pensions, and the effects will be felt both in the near term (with the temporary abolition of the welfare envelope) and more strongly in the long term through the new calculation method for civil servants’ pensions and the pension malus. The Study Commission for Aging corroborated what Vlaams Belang has long warned: a substantial portion of the population will not adjust behavior to secure a bonus or to avoid a malus. Samyn also pointed to a disconnect with the labor market: people are being nudged toward work and kept longer at work, but there are not enough suitable jobs to absorb the influx, which risks shifting people to other social benefits such as welfare and disability benefits. A leaked report had already shown that the gates to disability benefits remain wide open. Samyn pressed the minister for concrete measures to keep older workers in the labor force, noting that people must realistically be able to work until 66 or 67.
On this point, Jan Jambon was notably vague. The 2022 studies cited by Samyn suggest youth employment (ages 18–24) was already down about 5% and that the labor market has since undergone further changes, including AI developments, risking even later entry into the labor market. The development will inevitably affect career progression and thus pension rights, Samyn concluded, and Jambon’s approach risks ignoring this reality, with consequences that may only become visible years from now.
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