‘I fear poverty will start rising again’
Poverty is about more than a lack of income. According to Jill Coene, a researcher affiliated with the University Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, it involves a complex web of persistent problems. ‘The risk of poverty in Belgium may have fallen, but the outlook is bleak.’
‘Work, education, health, housing ... all these areas of life are intertwined,’ the poverty expert explains. ‘Anyone who suffers a setback in one area risks ending up in a downward spiral. Someone who loses their job, for example, loses their income, may no longer be able to pay the rent and comes under financial strain. Their physical health may also be jeopardised, for instance because they put off seeking medical care.’
According to Coene, poverty therefore extends beyond the individual. ‘The minimum standard isn’t mere survival, but a life of dignity. This is a structural problem: the situation of people living in poverty is so serious that they can’t catch up through their own efforts. Policy intervention is therefore essential.’
'This is a structural problem: the situation of people living in poverty is so serious that they can’t catch up through their own efforts. Policy intervention is therefore essential.’
Sudden drop
Can we put a figure on the poverty line? Coene: ‘In 2025, the at-risk-of-poverty threshold for a single person was an income of 1565 euros per month. For a family with two adults and two children, it was a monthly income of 3287 euros. According to figures from the 2025 European SILC survey, 10.9% of Belgium’s population lives in poverty. In Flanders, the figure is 7.2%, compared with 13.4% in Wallonia.’
‘Poverty in Belgium did drop under the De Croo government (2020–2025),’ Coene explains. ‘This was due to factors such as the increase in minimum benefits, the automatic indexation of wages and benefits and the favourable labour market. This development is actually quite remarkable. Since the 1980s, Belgium’s poverty rate had remained virtually unchanged in both good and bad economic times. It wasn’t until 2019 that we began to see a shift.’
Bleak outlook
So is poverty in Belgium finally moving in the right direction? Coene adds some nuance: ‘The figures for the Brussels-Capital Region remain shocking: 23.3% of the population lives in poverty. Children, single people, single-parent families and large families, people with low levels of education, unemployed and economically inactive people, tenants and people with a non-EU migration background are at high risk. Although the overall risk of poverty may have fallen, it’s actually rising for certain groups. Moreover, the poverty figures don’t tell the whole story. We’re also seeing, for example, a renewed rise in the number of people receiving social integration income. The same applies to the number of homeless people.’
The recent measures introduced by the De Wever government give the researcher little cause for optimism either. ‘The duration of unemployment benefits has been limited. The welfare envelope, which is used to adjust social benefits in line with living standards, is being cut, and the rules for calculating social integration income are being tightened. This reform of our social security system is intended to make it harder to abuse the system. But in my view, these measures miss the mark, and I even fear that they will cause poverty rates to rise again.’
For more information (in Dutch) about poverty, download the 2025 edition of the yearbook on poverty and inequality free of charge via this link. A new edition will be published in December 2026.