Ich habe heute mein morgendliches Medienbriefing durchgeführt und bin auf eine sehr positive Nachricht bei der Brussels Times gestoßen (Hier) darüber, wie "Flandern hat über 10.000 Langzeitkranke wieder in den Arbeitsmarkt integriert". Für eine Region mit nur 6,5 Millionen Einwohnern ist das keine geringe Zahl – und daher sicherlich eine Würdigung wert.
Was mich jedoch eine ganze Weile sprachlos machte, war die Lektüre des nächsten Absatzes, nämlich jenen "In Belgien gibt es schätzungsweise 585.000 Menschen, die krankheitsbedingt seit über zwölf Monaten arbeitsunfähig sind".
Ich dachte tatsächlich für eine Sekunde, dass es sich um einen Tippfehler handelte, und tatsächlich sind es 58.500, aber nein – mehr als 5 % der gesamten belgischen Bevölkerung, und fast 10 % der Bevölkerung im erwerbsfähigen Alter (20-60 Jahre alt) ist langzeitkrank. Nicht einer von 100, nicht einmal einer von 20 – fast jeder zehnte Mensch im erwerbsfähigen Alter in Belgien ist langfristig krank.
Für mich ist diese Zahl verblüffend – als jemand, der aus Osteuropa kommt (jetzt vollständig belgischer Staatsbürger) und über einen statistischen Hintergrund verfügt, weiß ich, dass die Daten für das Land, in dem ich geboren wurde, mehr als doppelt so niedrig sind.
Weiß jemand, warum es so häufig vorkommt? Gibt es irgendeine Form von systemischem Missbrauch, bei dem es einfach sehr einfach ist, langfristigen Krankenurlaub zu gewähren? Gibt es kaum oder gar keine Kontrolle darüber? Ich konnte wirklich keine verlässliche Erklärung finden, außer dass Belgien eine sehr großzügige Politik in Bezug auf Krankenurlaub hat. Darüber hinaus hat Belgien tatsächlich sehr viel "Normal" Daten zu regelmäßigen Krankenständen von einigen Tagen (sehen). Es scheint also, dass die Mehrheit der Arbeitnehmer ihren Krankenurlaub tatsächlich nicht in großem Umfang in Anspruch nimmt – aber es gibt auch eine beträchtliche Minderheit, die sie in extremem Umfang in Anspruch nimmt.
Ich bin wirklich neugierig, was die Ursache ist – Lücken im System? Kulturell? Gibt es möglicherweise spezifische regionale Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Überrepräsentation von Langzeitkranken?
The number of long term sick in Belgium just blew my mind
byu/Quiet_Illustrator410 inbelgium
Von Quiet_Illustrator410
33 Kommentare
Simply cultural I’m afraid. Just as it is cultural to do tax fraud or other types of „legal“ loopholes to abuse the social welfare system. It comes to a point where it would be dumb not to do it.
„Het zijn de gekken die werken“ is a common saying.
it is mostly fraud. people try to explain this with a straight face that belgium is somehow simply more injurious than all out surrounding countries. but especially among francophones social fraud is commonplace
unfortunately while party affiliated institutions decide who gets money from a common national pot, nothing will get fixed here
e: the subsidariaat has arrived
Someone remind me where Belgium ranks in the mental health and suicide statistics? Not all long term illness is physical.
That said, there probably is a reasonable amount of fraud. And while fraud should be eliminated, hunting down all of it is also probably more expensive than it’s worth.
Good and expensive social benefits allowing this to happen forever, plus doctors that can easily pass some „sick note“ for the most stupid reasons. My doctor wanted to give me more time than I needed. Some people will abuse the system, just because they benefit without much loss (especially people living at minimum wage level). I know a person who is on long term sickness, with something she already cured, but still stays due to her doctor note. And the company can’t fire her, because she is protected. Meanwhile, the company can’t hire anyone, because she is still considered one headcount….
And as someone said, it became cultural. Once you open the door to it, it’s very hard for people to let it go.
Do you have any statistics for the rest of Europe? I cannot find much to compare with myself, so any links may be welcome. I highly doubt it would be much different in other western european countries – if anything, the Flemish tend to „live to work“ rather than „work to live“, in my experience.
I find this topic to be one especially prone to be propagandized in our political climate, so thorough numbers should really come up in discussions like these – and why those numbers are the way they are rather than lump all long term sick people in as „profiteurs“.
I’d argue it comes down to a combination of factors. The system is relatively generous and accessible. Doctors, historically, may have been too quick to write long-term sick notes. And employers, for a large part, are less than entousiastic to make accommodations for re-integration.
Now, all of those things are changing, but there’s a long way to go still…
I’m Flemish born and was on sick leave (mix of burn out and depression) for 8 months around 2007. I felt i had the choice between struggling with long term sick leaves for the rest of my life or leave Belgium. I left and 20 years later my conclusion is that Flemish society chokes people whose brain is wired a little differently.
>Is there some form of systemic abuse, where it is simply very easy to grant long-term sick leave?
It’s not actually easy at all. A doctor has to analyze you and the conclusion of that analysis has to be „this person cannot work anymore“. This can be checked again if required.
Something has to have happened. The doctor is the gateway. And many parties can ask for extra checks.
These people are checked again over time as well, as per their specific condition, how they are progressing(some things take months to heal, some less, some longer, so checks are naturally fitted onto that knowledge).
Those claiming abuse of the system is massive, are doing so for purely political reasons. The populace is already frustrated at how hard they have to work, it’s easy to spin them a story of people trying to get out from under work.
Directing people’s anger is how the rich and powerful distract the people from the fact that the real abusers, are the rich and powerful.
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Yeah you cannot just base yourself on a number and Eastern European experiences. If the situation was so great there, there would not be so many Romanians, Bulgarians, Polish, et cetera here.
There are so many reasons: people have to work until 67 now and as of 50, the health issues start increasing and could be linked to lifestyle: lots of obese people in this country, high number of people use legal or illegal stimulants or medicine, have a very bad eating pattern of junk food and processed foods.
Burn-outs: it is not uncommon that people are repeatedly out or out for several years even. People in Belgium are extremely reluctant to seek help or to change jobs but it is hard to get access to professional, affordable, help as well.
I have seen proof that my employer for example needs to re-integrate people on sick leaves but in reality, nothing is happening. No idea why. I have also seen that employees can be extremely creative in staying at home as much as possible.
I know. I have 6 of them at my job. Its crazy they are still called employees.
One of them 10 years and two of them over a year.
But the boss still puts them on the daily schedule so we don’t get replacements and we have to do their hours too.
My bet is that due to a good and available sick leave network, we have faster, more diagnosis, more psychological support and even physical problems are identified much quicker.
Like during covid we had higher numbers than neighbouring countries, but we had an „overreport“ of cases compared to other nations.
As for systemic abuse, I have no clue. But certain work ethics do incentivize burnout quicker, like I have a friend who works IT who seems permanently near burnout
Everyone I know that has been or is on it has had a long painful path full of checks and balances to get it. Most of them desperately want to go back to work.
This country has a strong welfare state and we all should be proud.
As a kind reminder, people on sick leave still pay their taxes, as their subsidies are considered revenue.
I’m technically one of these, I think? Or is disability separate?
I’ve been through reinsertion stages, failed every single of them. While I do fine work, I rapidly crash out, burn out, because I can’t hold the work *and* my household. I do good work because I completely drop housework, and I’m incapable of doing both.
I do help in any way I can, still, mostly through through volunteering. Aren’t volunteer works just works that aren’t valued enough to be paid, anyway? But it’s far from a full schedule, because else, well, I’d not be holding up.
One reason not mentioned, and applicable especially for blue collar workers, could be that employers are not prone to let employees start their job again unless they are absolutely sure there is no risk of relapse, because that would be a financial punishment for the employer( that system just changed in 2026)
Also an employer wants you to be 100% fit to work, with optimal efficiency, safety and ecomic return. This will be checked by an independent Doctor. As long as the doctor’s findings are that you are not 100% fit to do a full-time fysical job they will be hesisant to employ you and they will be send back to ‚long term sick‘. All of the involved parties must be on the same line : employee and his doctor, the employer and the independent doctor, the doctor of the health fund.
Also employers do not like blue collar workers working x % off a fultime job. Labor is expensive and y’r employee not working fulltime can decreases efficiency and is harder organize. So it’s just less off a hasle to replace the worker and let the employee on sick leave.
It’s a system where there is little encouragement to reactivate people in ‚long term sick leave‘. New laws and measures are being taken in 2026, so we will have to wait and see how that affects the curve.
This is an opinion formed out of own experience. I have no idea how this would impact the numbers. I’m just leaving it here 😉
A major problem is that it’s very hard to get back on the labor market.
Employers will at best consider you a relapse risk, at worst consider you a freeloader and imposter who has only one goal, to screw them over. In addition, there’s a very hierarchical view of employment where the boss says what they want, and the employee says „yes boss“. But for people who return from long term sickness, they’ll need accommodations in schedule or workload before they can perform at 100% again, and that just shortcircuits something in the minds of employers: they are not supposed to accommodate employees, it’s the other way around!! So they avoid that.
Then from the side of the government, the same attitude from rightwing parties results in an official distrust towards the long term sick: they just *know* that every long term sick person who isn’t bleeding is an imposter, they just haven’t managed to catch them yet. So every time someone like that tries to work for a while and concludes they can’t handle it yet, they jump up and say „Aha! You have worked for a week! That proves my prejudice that you’re just a *profiteur* using up *my* money! No more sick leave!“ So the system conditions people to certainly not to try to work, as it will just be used against you to cut support.
Anecdotally, i had never come across someone on a long sick leave due to mental health before I moved to Belgium. I’ve worked in Germany, the UK and Eastern Europe. Here in Belgium I’ve had people drop off for many months at every job I worked.
It’s true though that Belgians are socially isolated and depressed. In Eastern Europe life sucks in general but people have strong social bonds so are perhaps less susceptible to depression. Also, if you request long term sick leave due to burnout you’ll be laughed out of the room.
It’s fraud and for whatever reason encouraged by the medical field. Even in this thread you will read that when people experience even the slightest discomfort in their work life they are put on long term leave. It’s madness
Op I am sorry you became a Belgian citizen without being unable to shed your unempathethic eastern european mindset as your proposition isn’t just based on a lie you didn’t create but seem to support, but also you lean into your bias of drawing the worst possible conclusion extrapolated from the least of data.
Instead if talking to you which clearly seems would be a waste of time, I will talk to natives unfamiliar with the former Soviet bloc.
In Belgium as most of us seem to be aware we pay dues and taxes so if the need arises we can benefit from it. In Eastern Europe there is not a vast network of social workers, Healthcare professionals whose job is to assist the chronically ill. A miniscule side tangent here in Belgium compared to Hungary I need to take a lot more antidepressants as sunlight and good weather are in the premium package.
So here in Belgium if you have an insured but chronically ill relative, health insurance offers various services to make life easier since you do pay for them. In Eastern Europe almost everything is pay to play, but it gets worse.
As health insurance doesn’t offer these services, the state pretty much expects you to drop out of work indefinitely with a pension for old people who never worked. In addition you are also barred from working.
What this means? That you have a few hundred euros at best a month to support yourself and pay the medical costs out of pocket for your chronically ill relative who because they themselves do not receive support also not go into the statistics.
So basically op bemoans that Belgium has a working social contract.
Regional differences could play a part, but I also think the hyperfocus on getting people back to work while not addressing the underlying issues is part of the problem.
I will focus on long-term sick for mental health reasons: I’m off work because I couldn’t do it anymore mentally. I immediately searched for help, and found it in a therapy group which I do fulltime now. Ofcourse I’m thinking about what after, so I contacted VDAB. As a result of the bureaucratic whirlwind I was sent through – and still am in, I ended up with three different job coaches suddenly, while I contacted only one, and I’m not even off sick-leave until July.
I mean, that’s all great, and I will need the help, but it shows how people are treated as beings that have to work, get forced to try, didn’t have enough time to resolve underlying issues and just end up on sick-leave again, sometimes even worse than before.
The limiting unemployment benefits to two years also fucks over people that actively use VDAB to reschool themselves by getting their bachelors. I don’t understand how these people can’t be an exception when they’ve proven that they’re doing their best and are succeeding. It makes zero sense to me that you can finish 2 years of a bachelor and for the third and last one it’s „suit yourself“. If you didn’t follow the „model trajectory“ (finish highschool at 18, finish college/uni by max 25) it’s being made tougher to catch up.
Therapy should be much, much more state-supported and the taboo should be actively removed through policy. Mental health deserves so, so, so much more emphasis in the workspace as a whole, but with the current government, focus on that is very low. We’re now in a time where the only thing that matters seems to be the economy and not spending money, but I predict it will lead to more drop-out, except in companies that actually have a big focus on it.
In any case, in the future, a question I’ll always ask a potentially new employer is how many people quit working there over a year and how long they work there on average. If the „verloop“ is big you know you won’t be treated as a human being, even if it appears so at first.
I worked for 17 years full time and had a massive burnout and panic attack crash 2 years ago. I never tought i would got something like this.
Was out of 6 months and worked 50, 60 and 80% from 2024 till 2026.
Now…things are going much better.
I feel like a lot of these people would benefit from having a parttime job, but there are very few of those in Flanders.
you cant have this discussion without adding that we also have one of the highest suicide rates in Europe. Just for those people that are talking about „systemic abuse“. 15th place worldwide.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate)
just right above kiribati and zimbabwe.
This is your sixth recent thread about how Belgium sucks. At least this time you didn’t add that we have to become more like the Netherlands. You don’t have to live here, you know? There are issues, but your fixation is weird.
I worked in a University and I’ve seen plenty of people who went into long term sick leave.
Most of those people were made sick by a hierarchy that bullied and humiliated them into depression. Once those people were destroyed they were useless to the university so the sick-leave was actually desired by the employer too. Because eventually they could fire the employees.
Most of those employees were good workers. But they were destroyed by a toxic work environment. When those people become unemployed they are likely to be long-term unemployed too because they have been crushed. Sometime repeatedly at different jobs.
I’m genuinely very grateful that Belgium has this kind of social safety net. I’m the mother of an autistic son, and within two years my entire life changed completely.
My son wasn’t able to attend regular school, and I constantly had to call in sick from work because there was simply no other option. At the same time, he developed severe sleeping problems and would stay awake throughout the night, while I still had to somehow function the next day. The chronic exhaustion, stress, and grief became overwhelming.
The future I thought I would have (a successful career in real estate and a healthy, stable family life) suddenly disappeared. I became deeply depressed and cried almost every day from exhaustion and heartbreak.
During that same period, I also discovered I had a thyroid tumor. Thankfully, after surgery, it turned out to be benign. But emotionally and physically, it was one of the hardest periods of my life.
That’s why I’m incredibly thankful I had the possibility to go on sick leave for two years. I can honestly say that having that support probably saved my family. Without it, I don’t know how we would have survived that period.
Today, I’m working part-time at a school, something completely different from the career path I originally imagined for myself, but I’m working again, rebuilding my life step by step, and mentally I’m in a much better place now.
There are many different factors and they differ quite a lot depending on which type of illness is involved. The two main causes are mental health issues and musculoskeletal disorders.
People with musculoskeletal disorders are often older and have been doing manual labor for a long time. Think the 55 year old cleaning lady or the 50 year old construction worker. They cannot easily retrain to perform another job and most jobs that they would qualify for would expose them to the same risks.
The mental health category is very broad. People assume „burn-out“ (not a medical condition BTW but a cause/trigger of other conditions) but it’s not necessarily the case. It could be people with crippling anxiety (not „I’m a bit nervous when I have a big meeting“ but „I’ll collapse in the middle of meeting“), major depression (to the point that they can’t function), but also people with undiagnosed or uncommon conditions (it can take years in Belgium before being diagnosed with rare diseases, and a lot of doctors will suggest psychosomatic disorders when they can’t diagnose someone).
The second category could be reduced by a lot if we worked to make workplaces more inclusive (e.g. normalize the fact that a colleague with anxiety/depression/… might need to skip some things, might need special accommodations, …) and more responsive to psychosocial risks. I know a lot of people who had to take ‚mental health‘ sick leave not because there was something intrinsically wrong with them but because there was unaddressed bullying/harassment. You could sometimes avoid 3-4 long-term illnesses over the course of several years just by firing a single toxic manager.
In the public sector, in addition to these kind of harassment situations, I’ve seen quite a lot of disengagement stem from the lack of growth opportunities for a lot of highly-skilled employees + huge workloads for some people when frontline staff is not replaced. In healthcare, you also have terrible conditions that create cognitive dissonance between your calling as a healthcare professional and the workload that basically forces you to do a shoddy job.
Currently on sick leave with a terrible disease and desperate to come back to work.
As someone who lived in Belgium for a few years as a non-EU expat, I was *shocked* at the number of people I met who were just casually out of work and living on the government’s dime. This included my first girlfriend (PTSD after her ex was abusive….2 years ago) and another girlfriend’s two siblings who had autism or whatever (but seemed more or less normal when you met them, could definitely hold down a job). Also a friend of my girlfriend who casually took 6 months off approximately because of „burnout“, something which would just never fly in most parts of the world. These are all people in their 20s and 30s by the way, literally losing their prime years for building a career/finding their place in the world. Honestly sad.
> I am really curious what is the cause – loopholes in the system? Cultural? Are there maybe specific regional differences regarding over-representation of long-term sick?
All of those, its a combination of easy acces, high stress society and a recent inflow from people on unemployment
My partner has psoriatic arthritis and his job that he’d been working at for over a decade said naw. So now he’s a sub teacher and getting sick pay. He works three days a week and thats hard on him.
I was part of those statistics. I am glad that the Belgian system gave me time to get better, although that the resources to actually help me were quite lacking. There was a lot of control though.
I also realised that going back to my job/career would mean a relapse in no time.
So I made the decision to change careers. Which wasn’t easy, as I earn way less and don’t have all the extras.
At the beginning of the year, I had a breakdown again, and idewe decided I had to stay home for a while. Now I am back, but gradually taking shifts up again. For which I am very thankful that they made this possible.
There will always be profiteurs. But many people suffer, and I am very grateful that I live here and got that time. 100% sure that otherwise I wouldn’t be here anymore.
We had a junior come in. Worked a couple of months. Went into burnout for 3 months now. The guy had 0 responsibility and was still learning.
The system sucks.