On Bel RTL this Wednesday morning, David Weytsman recalled that the unemployment reform exists to encourage a return to work. That CPAS centres must not be reduced to cash dispensers. And that their primary mission is to provide help and support that preserves human dignity.
The unemployment reform passed by the Arizona government comes into force on 1 January next year. The exclusion of long-term unemployed people will have an impact on the CPAS centres. Brussels' centre, the largest in the country, will have to take in nearly 3,000 people.
When asked about this reform, David Weytsman replies: “I believe part of the population thinks the CPAS is a cash machine. And when I hear certain left-wing chairmen, they think so too. Yet it's exactly the opposite. We're here to help people, to support them, to give them a dignified life. Those are the terms of the 1976 law.”
He also pointed out that an effective return to work requires appropriate help and support in the first place, which is no longer the case in Brussels for long-term unemployed people. “When I learned that in Brussels they hadn't been helped or supported for ten years, I nearly fell off my chair.”