Ageing at work was a two year project (2007-2009) within the framework of the Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013 of the European Commission.

The project was led by Prevent in Belgium and has partners in Greece (EWORX), Ireland (WRC), the Netherlands (TNO and Hogeschool Utrecht) and Poland (NIOM).

Project Aims

The project aimed at producing, testing and promoting training for human resource professionals on age management with a particular focus on health (i.e. integrated workplace health management).

The unit is composed of the employer, trade unions and sectoral bodies (training funds) and the regional employment service, which is responsible for its management.

As soon as redundancy is announced, workers are provided with support by the employment unit for a period of between three and six months during which they retain their wages and are exempt from the performance of their work.

This measure therefore transforms the "passive" period of notice or separation benefits into an "active" period of seeking employment, support and training.

A second phase of the prevention of violations has been implemented since 2010. A preventive system has been added which compares databanks before granting entitlement or before benefits are paid. Unwarranted benefit payments are therefore avoided at source.

This system has been progressively applied since 2004 and has enabled many unlawful cases of concurrently claiming unemployment benefits and receiving salaried, self-employed or disability income or pensions or pensions to be detected. More than 22,000 unlawful cases were accordingly detected in 2008 amounting to EUR 25 million (for information purposes, 404,000 persons were registered as unemployed in Belgium in 2008).

Authorized work includes home help such as cleaning, household shopping, ironing and assistance with travel for users who have reduced mobility.

Individuals pay EUR 7.50 per service voucher corresponding to one hour's work. They are entitled to 30 per cent tax relief (which reduces the actual cost to EUR 5.25). The public subsidy is EUR 13.60. The company consequently receives EUR 21.10.

The cost of the scheme is high and amounted to EUR one billion and 370 million in 2010 but the direct effects (40 per cent) and indirect effects are considerable.

The plan comprises two complementary sections:

The aim of the project is to increase the level of satisfaction of its personnel, their integration of common values and their well-being at work. It is based on a democratic, participative and emancipating approach which involved the entire organisation in its design and implementation.

Its success led to the introduction of two further projects between 2006 and 2008.

Strong measures have made it possible to prevent full unemployment and to reintegrate the long-term unemployed, whose numbers have fallen by 40 per cent. The measures include:

This project saw the following developments:

To qualify, the self-employed worker must not earn any income from work or receive any other replacement income (residual benefit).

Bankruptcy insurance is a compulsory branch of social security.

Scope of application: