Allocations de chomage

Last update: Feburary 2015 The information below may be outdated, please be nice and correct/update the information if you know something has changed.

So, if you satisfy these 2 conditions:

• You ended up in this page (guess you did)
• You did it because you searched it

then you are another lucky guy that is not payed anymore. Congratulations!!! Welcome to the club.

This page is meant to help you understand what is the process to follow in order to ask for the allocations de chomage

NOTICE that you can ask the allocation de chomage also if your grant is temporarily suspended (i.e., even if your contract is not ended yet).

In this page you can find:

• Useful links (Some links)
• Procedure to follow (What are the steps to be undertaken to ask for the unemployement)
• Monthly duty: the control paper (Bureucracy to do every month to get the money)
• Example (An example with date an numbers, to resume)
• Other stuff (Other things that will happen)

Some things are a bit fuzzy, I know, but I'm living this shit right now and when I started I had to figure out everything by myself, so be thankful and good luck!

Useful links and contacts

Some useful links and contacts:

• CAPAC: the guys that will pay you

• National office for employement: you can find some information and documents there

• LECLERCQ Sarah <Sarah.leclercq@ulb.ac.be> and AGBANI Yassine <yassine.agbani@ulb.ac.be> seems to be the resposibles for the finance aspects for phd students.

• Madame Antonella Bacchiocchi (Bulding S - 6th floor) can also give you lots of information about the procedure for asking the allocations de chomage.

 Antonella Bacchiocchi - Département de l'Administration Financière  - DAF-Service des Traitements
 Tel. 32(0)2 6502358 - Fax 32(0)2 6504689 - Antonella.Bacchiocchi@ulb.ac.be

Procedure to follow

The one described in the following is the procedure by which we asked the chomage.

The steps to follow are:

• To be granted the allocation de chomage, you must be "searching for employement". This means inscribing online to ACTIRIS. You must do this within one week after your contract expires. (You can't do it earlier.) This is the one deadline you shouldn't fuck up. When you inscribe to ACTIRIS you can print a receipt that is needed when going to the organism that pays you (CAPAC in our case, see following).

• You need to get the C4 document from your previous employer (ULB, FNRS or whichever body paid you). This document proves that you have been working X hours per week and it is also required by the CAPAC.
  • If you've been paid by the ULB, the person you have to contact to get the C4 is Monsieur AGBANI Yassine <yassine.agbani@ulb.ac.be>. It is better that you warn him before (one week was good for us) your contract expires, telling him that you "need the C4 for the allocations de chomage". The day your contract expires you can go and fetch this this C4 at the personnel department of ULB (Building S).
  • If you have been paid by FNRS, you need to contact Xavier HELLEBAUT <xavier.hellebaut@frs-fnrs.be>. Also in this case, plan a week for them to produce the document and mail it to you.

• Once you have the C4 you need to apply to an organism that pays the allocations. It can be either be a union ("syndicat") or the governmental body (the default). We have to use the CAPAC as there's no union for PhD students. You have to show up to this CAPAC office (address on website), with the C4, your Belgian ID card, and the proof that you inscribed on ACTIRIS. Take a book, you'll have to wait at least for about an hour.

• After 3-4 weeks, if everything is ok, you will receive a letter that says you have the right to the allocations de chomage. The amount of money you are going to get depends on your status (married, with children, living alone, etc etc)

Control papers

Every month you are supposed to compile a "control paper" (blue paper) that states what you have been doing in the previous month (unmenployed-working-vacation-illness). The CAPAC will give you some control papers when you introduce your request. If you need more you can ask via their website, they will send them by mail. It is best to hand the paper in the first day of the month (non mandatory: the earlier you hand it in, the earlier you get the money). A paper refers to the previous month, obviously. So, say, the 1st of June you hand in the paper that states what you've been doing in May. With the first control paper you also have to attach the receipt of ACTIRIS (which is probably going to be stapled on the control paper by the employee at the CAPAC office). Papers can either be put directly in a box that is inside CAPAC office (check opening hours, Belgian are too smart to leave a mailbox outside the office) or be sent by mail. Honestly, I preferred to go and put the paper in the box myself every month, your choice.

Note that you can also do this electronically via CAPAC if you have a working Belgian ID and a card reader. Much much easier.

An example

Say I have a grant expiring the 31st of January, then:

• January the 24th (1 week before) I send an email to mme BRIOT telling her that I'll need the C4 by the 31st.

• The 31st (the grant expires) I go to fetch the C4. The same day I inscribe online to ACTIRIS and I print a proof of inscription

• February the 1st I show up at the CAPAC office, with the C4, the belgian id card and the ACTIRIS receipt.

• On March the 1st I hand in the first control paper (relative to February), with attached the ACTIRIS receipt. (Somewhere in between I received confirmation by mail that I have the right to the chomage)

• After 4-5 days you get the money for the month of February.

• On April the 1st I do a lot of jokes and I also hand in the control paper for March.

• ... and so on.

Other stuff

What you are supposed to be doing is to apply for jobs. If you really are doing it, then save documents that prove it (CVs, mail sent, letters, whatever...). Eventually you will be contacted by ACTIRIS to show up in one of their offices. It usually happens for the first time 5-6 months after inscription.

Giovanni:

At the meeting with ACTIRIS there will be a person that presents to you and to others what ACTIRIS does, what your duties are, what are the organisms involved etc. Rubbish. After the presentation, you will talk personally to an employee, which reviews the data you filled in on the ACTIRIS websites and checks it with you. These persons are supposed to be tutors and follow you.

What I told my tutor is that I am finishing a PhD (i.e., in the process of writing the thesis, which is more or less true :)) and meanwhile I am applying for positions, mainly to university (so I could say it is hard to find a position, specially since they need post-docs or starting PhDs). Basically you have to give them the impression that you can search alone, so theydon't bother yoy.

For what I understood, this "autonomy mode" can last 6 months, after that they will chase you more. I also understood that there is the possibility that they call you for a rendez-vous where you have to show the documents that you sent for applying for jobs (which I don't have). Consequences of a mis-behavior can be "sanctions" (no idea what they meant).

Arne:

First meeting was just an informational presentation on Actiris and the help they provide. 1 hours of talk, then I could leave. I imaging that there will be further meetings that follow.