Introduction

Since the adoption of Economic and Social Rights in the Belgian Constitution in 1994, Belgian politicians – on all policy levels – have clear obligations to create the necessary conditions to guarantee every citizen the right to a decent living standard. After 25 years of constitutional provision, the actual exercise of this right still lacks a normative framework on what a decent living standard concretely entails. This has two important consequences. First, the enforcement of the constitutional provision by the Belgian Labour Courts depends merely on the (subjective) interpretation of the judge. Second, governmental authorities lack good instruments and indicators for implementing and evaluating enabling actions for citizens exercising their rights.

The Belgian reference budgets help to fill this gap. Based on a sound theoretical and methodological framework, they illustrate the minimum out-of-pocket costs of goods and services that people need to adequately participate in society. In this chapter we illustrate how Belgian reference budgets support politicians implementing the right to a decent living standard at different policy levels and in various policy domains. In particular, we discuss how reference budgets support local politicians to improve their strategies to guarantee citizens the subjective right to social assistance.

In the first section of this chapter, we briefly situate the origins of the reference budgets in the policy context and the design of the Belgian minimum income protection. In sections three and four, we discuss the theoretical and methodological foundations of the Belgian reference budgets. Next, we illustrate in section five the societal impact of Belgian reference budgets and their use by various stakeholders. We focus more in-depth on the policy impact of reference budgets, and more concretely on their added value for monitoring local anti-poverty strategies. In section six we conclude.

Policy context

The Belgian Social Security system can be characterised as a multilayered system of social insurance and social assistance benefits. It serves two main purposes: (1) maintaining to a certain extent the acquired living standard, and (2) guaranteeing a decent income for all members of society. Regarding the latter, the provision of a guaranteed minimum income is regulated by the law on the Right to Social Integration, introduced on 26 May 2002.