What are the key points of the budget agreement?

On Monday 24 November, the government reached an agreement regarding the budget. You can read here about the main points of this agreement and how it will affect you and your workers.

This AI-generated translation may contain errors and should not be considerd legal advice. For accurate info, refer to the Dutch or French version or consult your Securex Legal Advisor.

Index Limitation

The agreement states that individuals earning more than 4,000 euros gross per month will not receive full indexing in 2026 and 2028. Companies must still apply half of the 'index' to the portion of the salary that exceeds 4,000 euros gross. However, half of this amount will go to the state treasury instead of the employees. As an employer, you will not need to pay out the other half of the salary above 4,000 euros.
Read more: "Federal budget agreement: “ purchasing power and competitiveness"

The GGMMI Increases

On April 1, 2026, the guaranteed minimum monthly income (the GGMMI) will increase by 35 euros. The GGMMI is the minimum salary that an employee aged 18 and older (not a student) in Belgium must earn. After the last indexing on February 1, 2025, the GGMMI currently stands at 2,111.89 euros gross.

Implementation of the Summer Agreement

The labour market measures from the summer agreement are being further developed. Flexi-jobs will be expanded to all sectors, and the maximum exempt annual income from these flexi-jobs will increase from 12,000 to 18,000 euros. Additionally, the labour market will become more flexible through measures such as easing the introduction of night work, with night work in e-commerce shifting from midnight to 5 a.m.

Reintegration of Long-term Sick Employees

The government prioritises getting long-term sick employees back to work. Employers will share the responsibility for creating adapted work. This will be achieved through the following four measures:

Expanding the solidarity contribution: from January 1, 2027, this contribution will also apply for the fourth and fifth month of incapacity for work. Companies with more than fifty employees will pay 30% of the health insurance benefit for four months after the month of guaranteed salary. This amounts to approximately 18% of the gross salary. The contribution will stop as soon as the employee partially returns to work.
Increasing the work resumption premium: employers who allow long-term sick employees to return partially for at least three months will receive a higher premium.
Optimising the Return to Work Fund: vouchers for private intermediaries will be indexed, and the application process will be simplified to encourage reintegration.
Launching a pilot project on sectoral mobility: employees who can no longer perform their original role but have transferable skills will be given opportunities at other companies within the same sector through this project.

Pension Reform

The pension reform from the summer agreement has been further refined during the budget negotiations. The first year of a career will now count towards early retirement starting from 104 worked days instead of 156. Additionally, long-term sickness periods, along with care periods, maternity leave, and temporary unemployment, will be treated equally so that they do not negatively affect the right to early retirement. These adjustments aim to make the system fairer and more accessible for employees with interrupted careers.

SME Plan

In addition to the approval of the multi-year budget for 2026-2029, a SME plan was also approved on Monday. This plan includes around 80 measures aimed at providing more support for SMEs while also promoting job creation.

Fiscal Measures

The agreement ensures the implementation of tax reform, which will allow everyone who works to keep more of their net income. The purely fiscal use of companies will be addressed, the tax on securities for individuals with more than 1 million euros in their securities account will double, and the fight against tax and social fraud will be intensified.

What does Securex do for you?

All these measures still need to be further developed and codified into legal texts. As soon as more information is available, you will find it on Lex4You.