Service vouchers and social economy: 13 Brussels organisations on borrowed time

Thirteen Brussels organisations working in social insertion combine two schemes: the service voucher contract (titres-services) and an employment aid linked to a social insertion mandate. A 2024 decree now treats this combination as incompatible. As of 1 January 2027, these structures lose their economic model. According to FeBISP (Brussels Federation of Socioprofessional Insertion and Social Insertion Economy Bodies), up to 735 jobs are at risk — 683 of them are domestic helper positions, held at 95% by low-skilled women. The cabinet of the Brussels Employment Minister puts the figure at 347 jobs affected out of the 27,000 in the Brussels service voucher sector.

Six associations — including five Local Employment Agencies (ALEs): ALE Auderghem, ALE Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, ALE Bruxelles-Ville, ALE Koekelberg–Bee-Net and ALE Saint-Gilles–Remue-Ménage — and four social enterprises are directly threatened with bankruptcy (source: FeBISP, relayed by economiesociale.be). More than 9,000 Brussels households using these services would lose their domestic helper, according to sector organisations. The rally on 20 May 2026 at 2 p.m. outside the Engagés headquarters on rue du Commerce aimed to prevent Minister Laurent Hublet (Les Engagés) from presenting to the Brussels government the following day an ESMI 2027 call for projects that would formally exclude service vouchers from insertion funding.

The legal mechanism

A decree adopted in 2024 under the previous legislature (Vervoort government, Bernard Clerfayt as Employment Minister for Défi) prohibits combining a service voucher contract with an employment aid linked to a social insertion mandate in the social economy. The press sources consulted have not published either the exact title or the Belgian Official Gazette reference of the decree.

Applying the text falls to the cabinet of the current minister, Laurent Hublet (Engagés), who joined the Brussels government at the start of 2026 following a government formation process lasting more than 600 days. Speaking to Le Soir, Hublet stated: "This decree is binding on me" and added that "amending it would take too long" (Pascal Lorent, Le Soir, 19 May 2026). The minister also invoked a European justification: without the decree, the dual funding (insertion subsidy + service voucher income) risked being classified by Europe as a prohibited state aid and "therefore condemned". According to the cabinet, "the exclusion does not stem from a new policy direction, but from the application of a regulation adopted under the previous legislature".

On Thursday 21 May 2026, Laurent Hublet presented to the Brussels government an ESMI 2027 call for projects (Économie Sociale Mandatée en Insertion — Mandated Social Insertion Economy). As currently drafted, the call prospectively excludes service voucher structures from the insertion funding framework. For FeBISP, this exclusion combined with the application of the 2024 decree deprives the thirteen organisations of both their current framework and any continuity alternative.

Sector organisations describe this as an "excessive interpretation" of the decree (a term reported by L-Post) and a "break without consultation" (DH, 7 May). Several projects had been validated in 2024 by Bruxelles Économie et Emploi (BEE) based on a different reading of the text — the 2026 application is perceived as retroactive.

Three distinct schemes, often confused

To frame the debate, three different legal frameworks exist in Brussels. They target different groups and operate under distinct funding logics:

The thirteen organisations at the heart of the current crisis combined ESMI and standard service vouchers: their workers, recruited through the insertion mandate, were deployed in service voucher assignments. It is precisely this overlap that is now treated as incompatible.

The adapted work sector (FEBRAP) is a fourth distinct space with no direct connection to this crisis — its enterprises (twelve in Brussels, eighteen hundred employees of whom fourteen hundred and fifty have disabilities) operate under a specific accreditation framework.

The figures in dispute

Two estimates exist side by side. FeBISP and the trade unions put the figure at 735 jobs (est.) at risk, of which 683 are domestic helpers, based on a count of the thirteen affiliated organisations affected by the ESMI + service voucher combination. The cabinet of Minister Hublet gives 347 jobs (est.) out of the 27,000 in the Brussels service voucher sector — a narrower perimeter based solely on the posts directly subsidised under the insertion scheme.

The gap of 388 jobs between the two figures comes down to methodology: FeBISP includes all posts whose economic viability depends on the now-prohibited combination; the cabinet counts only those where the insertion aid directly finances the service voucher activity. Neither party had published its detailed methodology at the time of writing.

The people

The workers concerned share a convergent demographic profile. 95% are women, the majority aged over forty-five, with low educational attainment; many are "single mothers, with few qualifications, of African origin" (Pascal Lorent, Le Soir, 19 May 2026). They are employed on permanent contracts by the insertion cooperatives, which absorb the lower productivity during the early stages of their career path through the subsidy. The insertion subsidy represents approximately €12,200 per worker per year over five years, or roughly 24% of payroll costs (François Ledecq, director of the Acelya cooperative, Le Soir). A significant proportion have no access to unemployment benefits (insufficient contribution record, administrative status) or to CPAS (Centre public d'action sociale — public social welfare centre) assistance (eligibility conditions not met).

For François Ledecq (Acelya), "structures like ours will have to close their doors because we are losing a significant share of our income". And: "Overnight, this scheme disappears without debate or evaluation, whereas the aim is to get 50,000 people back into work in Brussels" (Le Soir, 19 May 2026). For Luca Ciccia (CSC), president of the Advisory Council for the Social Economy (CCES), "eliminating more than seven hundred jobs makes no sense at all" (L'Avenir, 30 April 2026). A switch to the standard service voucher scheme is, according to sector organisations, largely unrealistic: the standard scheme offers a less supportive framework, more fragmented working hours, and an employability threshold that these workers, without insertion support, do not meet spontaneously.

Political timeline

December 2023   The Vervoort government, with Bernard Clerfayt as Employment
                Minister (Défi), eliminates 550 ACS insertion posts without
                any transition arrangement.
2024            Adoption of a decree under the previous legislature: a service
                voucher contract and an insertion employment aid in the social
                economy can no longer be combined.
13/02/2026      Regional Policy Declaration 2026-2029: 70% employment target,
                enhanced activation. No mention of service vouchers or the
                2024 decree.
16/04/2026      The Brussels government approves, on the proposal of Laurent
                Hublet, the Actiris 2026 budget (€289M, effort reduced from
                €40M to €28M). The official press release claims "particular
                attention" to the associative sector and Actiris partners for
                "supporting jobseekers distant from the labour market".
                Service vouchers in the social economy are not mentioned.
30/04/2026      FeBISP goes public with the alert: 735 jobs at risk across 13
                Brussels organisations.
06/05/2026      Meeting between Laurent Hublet and FeBISP.
07/05/2026      Mobilisation #1 outside Minister Hublet's cabinet: 350 people
                according to organisers, 150 according to police. Organisations
                describe it as a "break without consultation".
18-19/05/2026   DH and La Libre publish "two ministers pass the buck".
                Bernard Clerfayt admits: "no recollection of an explicit
                discussion of this aspect of the reform" and that the text
                "deserves to be corrected".
20/05/2026      Mobilisation #2 outside the Engagés headquarters, rue du
                Commerce, at 2 p.m. FeBISP + CSC, FGTB, CGSLB.
21/05/2026      Brussels Government Council. Laurent Hublet presents the
                ESMI 2027 call for projects.
29/05/2026      Opening of the ESMI mandate call for the 2027-2032 period.
03/06/2026      The Hublet cabinet announces a five-year transition period:
                service voucher enterprises in the social economy may apply
                to the mandate call to retain employment aids until 2032.
10/07/2026      Closing of the mandate call (applications for 2027-2032).
01/01/2027      Effective entry into force of the new scheme.

Hublet and Clerfayt: who says what

The cabinet of Minister Laurent Hublet (Engagés) defends a textual reading of the 2024 decree. "The exclusion does not stem from a new policy direction, but from the application of a regulation adopted under the previous legislature," it stated to the press on 7 May. In Le Soir of 19 May, Hublet added: "This decree is binding on me" and invoked the European threat — without the decree, dual funding risks being classified by Europe as an unlawful state aid. "Amending it would take too long," he added, to justify not rewriting the text.

On the trajectories of the 735 workers, Hublet proposed two options to Le Soir: redirecting them to other service voucher enterprises facing a labour shortage, or "by using other integration schemes, such as adapted work enterprises, where this is warranted". The reference to adapted work — the disability sector, separate accreditation, with no historical link to socioprofessional insertion publics — baffled the sector: ESMI workers do not have disabilities, and FEBRAP (which groups adapted work enterprises) has neither the mandate, nor the business model, nor the capacity to take on 735 additional people. Hublet concluded by declaring himself "open to working together with the sector and with Actiris on rapid and pragmatic solutions".

His predecessor, Bernard Clerfayt (Défi), who held the Employment portfolio in the previous legislature, publicly acknowledged having "no recollection of an explicit discussion of this aspect of the reform" and stated that the text "deserves to be corrected" (DH / La Libre, 18-19 May 2026). The former minister thus suggested a legislative revision.

The sector, for its part, considers the 2026 application "retroactive": several projects validated in 2024 by Bruxelles Économie et Emploi (BEE) were based on a different reading of the text. For FeBISP, combining ESMI and service vouchers was a tolerated — and even encouraged — practice until 2024.

Fourteen days before the FeBISP alert. On 16 April 2026, the Hublet cabinet published an official press release on the Actiris 2026 budget agreement (€289M total trajectory). The text claimed "particular attention" to measures aimed at "the associative sector" and "Actiris partners for supporting jobseekers distant from the labour market", recalled "support for getting people very distant from the market back into employment" regarding ACS, and confirmed 100% maintenance of the ambitions of Actiris' partnership policy (€67M). Service vouchers in the social economy were not mentioned in the press release. Fourteen days later, it was precisely this segment — the associative insertion sector, Actiris partners, the most labour-market-distant groups — that denounced its exclusion from insertion funding.

Cascading effects

ACS insertion precedent (December 2023). Under the previous legislature, 550 ACS insertion posts had already been eliminated without any transition arrangement, initially targeting low-skilled young people in the non-profit sector. The current pattern — strict application of an inherited decree, without a continuity alternative — repeats the same mechanics.

Social enterprise bankruptcies. Four of the ten social enterprises and associations concerned are described by the sector as "on the brink of bankruptcy". Brussels already recorded 2,208 business bankruptcies in 2025, up 13.2%. A concentrated cessation of activity across ten insertion structures would mean the extinction of an entire sub-sector.

Households using the service. More than 9,000 Brussels households would lose their domestic helper according to sector organisations (RTBF, 20 May 2026). The impact falls primarily on elderly people living at home, single-parent families and people losing their independence.

Switch to CPAS unlikely. The workers concerned, often with no access to unemployment benefits or CPAS assistance, have no immediate safety net if made redundant. The pressure on Brussels' 19 CPAS — already documented for 2026 — cannot absorb this group.

Actiris under strain. The regional employment agency is facing a difficult 2026: the Director-General resigned on 30 March, and the 2026 budget was revised in April to preserve Article 20 and partnerships. The service voucher crisis adds to an employment policy already operating under budgetary pressure.

De-escalation: a five-year transition (3 June 2026)

On 3 June 2026, the cabinet of Employment Minister Laurent Hublet (Engagés) announced a five-year transition period (2027-2032) for social economy enterprises active in the service voucher sector. The mechanism operates through the ESMI mandate call open from 29 May to 10 July 2026 for the 2027-2032 period: the structures concerned may apply in order to continue benefiting from employment aids for five years, subject to conditions. According to the cabinet, the decision "allows the enterprises concerned to continue their insertion missions for five years".

The figures communicated on this occasion adjust the scope of the dossier: 14 structures receive employment aids and operate in the service voucher sector; the government now puts the number of jobs at risk at 400 (compared to 735 claimed by the sector), for a social economy budget of €19 million. The cabinet estimates that 25 to 30% of workers could eventually integrate into mainstream service voucher enterprises.

The 2024 decree is not amended — the fundamental incompatibility between combining service vouchers and insertion employment aids remains — but the five-year transition defers its effect and opens a path to continuity conditional on selection through the mandate call. Former minister Bernard Clerfayt (Défi) maintains that "in 2024, there was absolutely no question of making the aids incompatible with service vouchers". The real scope of the measure will depend on the number of structures actually awarded a mandate and the conditions attached to those mandates.

Sources: BRUZZ — Hublet geeft sociale dienstenchequebedrijven vijf jaar respijt (3 June 2026); La DH Bruxelles — Un an de sursis pour les entreprises d'économie sociale (3 June 2026). Confidence: official (Minister's cabinet).

A model at the end of its run

The Brussels crisis is part of a broader questioning of the service voucher scheme. In Wallonia, where approximately 45,000 workers serve approximately 293,000 users, Employment Minister Pierre-Yves Jeholet has stated that "we have reached the end of the current model" (RTBF, May 2026): the regional cost amounts to approximately €600 million per year, 28.6 million vouchers were used in 2024, the average age of workers exceeds 50, and working conditions are physically gruelling for modest wages. Parliamentary hearings will precede a reform expected in 2027.

Flanders transformed its scheme earlier under a different logic (Vlaamse Ondersteuningspremie). Brussels, for its part, faces a specific crisis: the combination of a highly vulnerable worker population, a dense network of social insertion economy organisations, and acute regional budgetary pressure. The choices made in 2026-2027 will shape the Brussels model for the decade ahead.

Issues to watch

• Decision of 21 May 2026 — addressed on 3 June. A transitional arrangement has been announced: a five-year transition period (2027-2032) via the ESMI mandate call open until 10 July. What remains to be monitored is the number of structures actually awarded a mandate and the conditions attached.
• Possible rewriting of the 2024 decree. Bernard Clerfayt acknowledges that the text "deserves to be corrected". Is a parliamentary or governmental initiative under consideration?
• Coordination between schemes. What lasting coordination between standard service vouchers, ESMI and adapted work is possible for workers with intermediate profiles? Has Hublet's proposal to redirect workers towards adapted work enterprises been properly assessed (FEBRAP capacity, legal basis, relevance for workers without disabilities)?
• European risk. Is the state aid risk invoked by Hublet documented by an enforceable legal opinion, or merely by a precautionary reading from within the cabinet?
• Individual trajectories. In the event of redundancy, where do the 735 workers go, given that a significant proportion have no access to unemployment benefits or CPAS assistance?
• Impact on 9,000+ households using the service. What continuity of service can be provided for Brussels households that currently benefit from a domestic helper through the threatened organisations?
• National reform of the service voucher scheme. How will Brussels align with the reform announced by Wallonia and with the choices already made in Flanders?