Some 1,500 Brussels residents who applied for unemployment benefits through the Christian trade union ACV have still not received them after several months.
More than a thousand payments are late because the ACV submitted the applications to the National Employment Service too late as a result of staff shortages. This accounts for almost 1% of all new applications from 2021 and 2022, Nancy Tas of ACV's Brussels chapter, told VRT.
To receive unemployment benefits, the institution must deliver your file to the National Employment Service within two months of application – which has not happened for the files of some 1,500 Brussels residents.
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"We unfortunately do not have enough means. Disbursement agencies have been underfunded by the government for years," said Tas, who added that there are too many applications and too few people to process them.
Hiring new staff will not provide immediate relief from the backlog of more than a thousand files either. In fact, training new staff takes a year, she said.
In the meantime, ACV Brussels will bring in staff from other regions.
