This is a an account on Twitter … probably not a real person or rather a person hiding behind a fake name. That being said this account is spewing nonsense into the world. It talks about “vulnerable” families, which is a Belgian euphemism for poor people. But what is “poor” ?
In Belgium a “vulnerable” family or person is …
The family situation is often already complicated because of various problems (for example, psychological or addiction problems of the parent(s), poverty, financial, relationship or housing problems.) For children in such families it is hard. Children get psychological or behavioral problems. There are children whose home situation is so unsafe that care or education at home seriously threatens their development.
Financial definition of a “vulnerable” family
The family has an irregular monthly income, the disposable income (minus debts) is lower than the amount of the living wage, and the family is living on unemployment benefit and/or living wage. The amount of the living wage for a family with children is € 1179.65 (single parent or not). We make no distinction based on the number of dependent children and do not take child benefit into account.
So if you make less than 1179.65 € per month you are vulnerable as a person or family.
That seems a lot of money but the Belgian reality is that rent is most of the time shockingly high, around 650 € for a small appartment in the cities, around 550 € for appartments in the countryside. That is without electricity, water, Internet access, heating … without transportation costs, without communication costs.
The price for very limited electricity is around 25 – 30 € per person per month. Mind you, you can not leave things on. You have to save energy in this scenario. So we started with 1179.65 € per month, we subtract the rent and electricity and we get to 500 € of disposable income. However we need to take into account the mandatory health insurance … about 10 € per month / per person. And we need water too … For a single person it could be limited to 25 € per month, for a family of 4 it would be like 100 € per month.
So we are now at 360 € and we still have no heating, no communication and no Internet.
If you do not use electricty for heating, you pay around 125 € per month, with electricity it goes up to 400 € a month, which is impossible. So if you have heating with electricity you start saving. And sit in the cold.
So we go down to 235 €.
For your phone you can get a very limited bill of 15 € a month. So we get down to 220 €.
Now for Internet … you can not live in Belgium WITHOUT Internet access because the bureaucracy demands that you fill in forms and register stuff through the Internet. Often your Internet is linked to a TV provider (there is hardly any terrestrial TV left in Belgium) ….
The cheapest Internet starts around 23 € … an average Internet connection is around 40 €.
So we go down to 190 €.
Television is around 50 € a month. So we end up at 140 € per month.
140 €
And then we need to send two children to school … how much would that be ?
The maximum by law in Belgium is 75 € for 2 children per month. Let’s assume you save money there too and you get like 50 € a month.
So we get to 90 € a month left for necessary things like FOOD, CLOTHES, SHOES, DOCTORS, MEDICINE …
On average a normal family spends around 300 € a month on all that stuff. So people need to save money and they eat badly. They buy second or third hand clothes and for medicine they go to doctors who have group practices, they are less expensive. And that is a vulnerable family.
Mind you they are not all unemployed, some do work, part time or low wage jobs.
These are the loafers and migrants to Belgium.
Far right bs
The man who makes a statement like that has no idea about the living conditions of these people. The question is, how many are there in Belgium ?
According to StatBel, the statistics site of the Belgian government there are around 1607400 … One million six hundred and seven thousand and four hundred vulnerable people in Belgium.
That is a lot of loafers and migrants.
There are only 634000 migrants in Belgium so … who are these dirty stupid 1000000 loafers ?
Many questions for the far right in Belgium … many … (tbc)