Interruption benefits - eligibility conditions modified

In the Belgian Official Gazette of this 1 March, a Royal Decree was published that modifies the conditions that must be met in order to receive interruption benefits in case of time credit.

A first modification concerns the employees who suspend their work entirely or who switch to half-time employment in the framework of the general time credit regime. In order to be entitled to interruption benefits, these employees must from now on have a seniority of at least two years with their employer and this at the moment they notify in writing their intention to take time credit.

This new seniority condition does not apply to those employees who have exhausted their rights to parental leave for all their children and who suspend their work entirely or who switch to half-time employment in the framework of the general time credit regime and this immediately following their parental leave. As before, these employees continue to be entitled to interruption benefits if they were linked to their employer by an employment contract during 12 months in the course of the 15 months preceding the written notification.

A second modification concerns the special time credit regime for employees aged 50 or older. Employees who reduce their working time in the framework of this regime to a half-time regime or who reduce working time by 1/5th, will from now on be entitled to the "increased" interruption benefits only as from the age of 51. Between the age of 50 and 51, these employees receive the normal benefits as foreseen in the general time credit regime.

These new conditions will be applicable to time credit arrangements where the employee has communicated to his/her employer for the first time a written intention to take time credit after 1 March 2010. They do not apply to prolongations.