System of unemployment with company supplement: Revaluation coefficient 2016

Each year the Belgian National Labour Council decides whether the company supplements and the reference wage threshold for the system of unemployment with company supplement must be adjusted with a coefficient based on the evolution of the conventional wages. After the decision was taken in 2015 not to apply any revaluation coefficient, a revaluation coefficient will be applied again on 1 January 2016.

Adjustment of the company supplement

The revaluation coefficient is only applied to the company supplement and varies according to the month of the reference wage which serves as a basis for the calculation of the company supplement (in general the month before the beginning of the system of unemployment with company supplement).

The revaluation coefficient is defined as follows from 1 January 2016:

Remark: the legal company supplement is always adjusted on the basis of the coefficient. The adjustment of the extralegal company supplement depends on the provisions of the agreement.

Reference wage for calculating the company supplement

Since 01 January 2016, the gross wage taken into account when calculating the company supplement amounts to:

Adjustment of the thresholds for the 6.5% withholding at the expense of the unemployed person receiving company supplement

The total amount of the system of unemployment with company supplement (unemployment benefits + company supplement + extralegal company supplement, if any) will not be liable to the usual social security contributions. A 6.5% social contribution intended for the NSSO will be deducted from the total amount of the unemployment benefit and the (legal and extralegal) company supplement.

However, the application of the above deduction may not cause the total amount of the system of unemployment with company supplement to fall below certain thresholds. 

Since 1 January 2016, the thresholds for applying these deductions in case of a conventional system of unemployment with company supplement (cba No. 17) or half-time bridging pension (cba No. 55) are determined as follows:

Note The 6.5% deduction will be limited or will not be applied when the (full) deduction would cause the amount of the unemployment benefit + the company supplement to fall below the above minimum amount based on the dependent family members.

(1) The notion of 'dependant' (within the meaning of the unemployment legislation) is exclusively defined by the ONEm (National Employment Office) on the basis of a document provided to the employer. In the absence hereof, the unemployed person with company supplement is presumed to have no dependants.

Source: www.cnt-nar.be  

FR/NL

Auteur : Peggy Criel

21-01-2016