Belgium's State Secretary for the Budget Alexia Bertrand proposed to reduce the "tax burden" and widen the financial difference between employed and unemployed people in Belgium. Her hope is to make employment more attractive than living off of social benefits.

We have to make sure that work is once again emancipating and that the quality of life and standard of living increases when you go to work.

According to Bertrand, the situation calls for a reduction of the tax burden, thereby increasing the differential between work and non-work.

There is no longer a sufficient gap between those living on social benefits and those who work, according to Bertrand. "People who receive the social rate, reduced rates in crèches, increased social allowances, transport allowances, and so on, go from 'on' to 'off' when they go back to work – losing all of these benefits." Some social workers allegedly even advise people not to work.

We, therefore, propose that there should always be a difference of €500 net between those who work and those who do not. And that we look at these benefits not according to a status, but according to income and real needs.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/502781/budget-secretary-calls-for-e500-gap-between-the-unemployed-and-those-working