Report to the Federal Parliament: Taking unpaid leave and absence schemes into account in the calculation of the civil servants’ retirement pension

Since the 6th State reform in 2014, the federated entities have introduced new unpaid leave and absence schemes. To avoid an excessive increase in pension costs for the federal government, only schemes set out in a legal list can be taken into account in the calculation of the retirement pension. The Belgian Court of Audit noted the absence of legal criteria for including these schemes in the list. The federal government has so far approved all requests for additions to the list, including alternative leave schemes whereby federated entities circumvent certain limitations imposed when calculating the retirement pension. This situation creates legal uncertainty and unequal treatment between public administrations. It also takes a long time (4.5 years on average) for a request to be processed. Furthermore, the description of the leave schemes mentioned in the legal list is insufficiently detailed, which makes it unclear. As a result, effective verifications are impossible and corrections can hardly be carried out.