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The battle against social fraud: action plan for 2016 - Priorities for the social inspection services

Newsflash
Social inspections and criminal law

From the beginning of its term of office, the Michel I government has highlighted that the battle against social fraud and social dumping was a priority.

The government has translated its general policy document into a concrete action plan with 85 action points.    

The government considers the following topics as priorities for 2016:

  • fight against undeclared work and against contributions fraud;
  • fight against benefits fraud;
  • fight against social dumping (irregular secondment of foreign employees to Belgium);
  • fight against the so-called “fake” self-employment.

When executing the action plan, the inspection services will follow an industry-level approach with a focus on the so-called “fraud sensitive industries” like the construction industry, the meat processing industry, the cleaning industry, the transport industry, the surveillance industry and the hotel and catering industry.

In the fight against “work in the black economy” the government has taken for example the following industry-specific measures:

  • the attendance registration at construction sites with a value of at least 500.000 EUR instead of 800.000 EUR from 1 January 2016;
  • the future Construbadge in the construction industry;
  • the attendance registration in the meat processing industry;
  • the tax cash register system in the hotel and catering industry.

Furthermore, the government announces a more structured data exchange between social and tax administrations, and the cross-checking of databases will be increased on the level of the various social security institutions.

Since October 2015, also the so-called “Fair competition hotline” is operational. Through this website, citizens, companies and organisations can report social fraud.

Finally, in 2016, the inspection services will also organise announced “social flash controls” with the aim of preventing social fraud.     

> Action point

Prepare yourself for a possible visit by the inspection services by making sure you know who works for your company (employees of subcontractors, self-employed people, temporary employees,...) and that all the required contracts, registrations and social documents are in place. Also, do make sure that you respect the industry-specific obligations, for example the attendance registration in the construction and meat processing industry.