Living wage and stay abroad: the four-week rule and what the OCMW may check

The wet van 26 mei 2002 betreffende het recht op maatschappelijke integratie (Act of 26 May 2002 on the right to social integration) ties the living wage to actual residence in Belgium. Payment is suspended for the period in which the beneficiary stays abroad for more than four weeks per calendar year. The public centre for social welfare (OCMW) may deviate from this if exceptional circumstances justify the longer stay, for example a serious illness of a parent or, as the labour courts accepted in 2023, closed borders during the coronavirus crisis.

The beneficiary must report any stay abroad to the OCMW in advance, stating the duration and the reason. Anyone who does not report and still stays away for more than four weeks receives the living wage for that period unduly. The OCMW then recovers it and, in the event of fraudulent intent, may temporarily suspend the entitlement.

The OCMW may check residence using the means of the social investigation: home visits, interviews, water and energy consumption data, data from the Kruispuntbank (Crossroads Bank) and information from other services. A social worker who repeatedly finds no one at home, sees a home that has been unoccupied for weeks or hears that the client is “with family abroad” has a concrete indication.

What the OCMW cannot do is establish for itself where the client is staying abroad and whether they own a home there. Travel movements within the Schengen area are not registered, and for countries outside the Schengen area the OCMW has no access to border or property data.

Repeated and long stays in the same country may be a concrete indication that justifies further case investigation. In our cases involving a long stay, it regularly turns out that the person concerned or their family owns or co-owns a home there: the parental home, a self-built house, an apartment on the coast. For the OCMW this is relevant in two ways.

1. As a resource. Real estate abroad counts in the means investigation, regardless of the four-week rule. A home that stands empty or is let represents assets or income. See means test for the living wage.
2. As evidence of residence. A home in the person’s name in the region to which the client travels each time supports the finding that the stay lasted longer than stated.

The finding of absence from Belgium and the finding of ownership abroad reinforce each other. How you combine the two tracks is described in domicile fraud versus property fraud.

A usable case file comes about in three steps.

Record the absence. Note dates, sources and findings: the home visit with no answer, the client’s statement on return, the consumption that stood at zero. Ask the client in writing about the reason and duration of the stay and about their residential address abroad.

Have a pre-check carried out. With the identity details and the region of residence, our lawyer on site checks whether real estate is registered in the client’s name. The pre-check is usually completed within 1 to 2 weeks. A positive outcome does not in itself establish fraud; a negative outcome does not exclude every form of foreign ownership.

Decide on the basis of both. If the outcome is positive, you may consider a full in-depth investigation, with extract, deed and, where necessary, a valuation. The OCMW then decides on suspension, revision and recovery, and hears the client. In 2026 the federal government confirmed that OCMWs may engage specialised firms for this type of investigation.

Sources: wet van 26 mei 2002 betreffende het recht op maatschappelijke integratie (Act of 26 May 2002 on the right to social integration), explained in Primabook of the POD Maatschappelijke Integratie (PPS Social Integration); BRUZZ, 6 July 2026.