The investigation broadcast on Tuesday evening demonstrates how two Flemish journalists, under a false identity and without being domiciled in Anderlecht, managed – with disconcerting ease – to become social welfare recipients. Despite an address chosen at random, they encountered neither obstacle, nor verification, nor real follow-up on their way.
The chaos that reigns in this CPAS has already been widely denounced by several public reports. The situation continued to worsen, as did the pressure and intimidation placed on overworked social workers. Some of them denounce a president of CPAS who regularly flouts the legal process and imposes his decisions to financially help citizens whom he invites to his office. An assumed clientelism, even claimed. The management problems are also obvious. Other testimonies indeed suggest that so-called separated couples continue to receive two maximum allowances while expanding their families…
Karine Lalieux on social fraud in Anderlecht: “CPAS sometimes have a deplorable image of “Bancontact”, this makes me angry”
This investigation, carried out following a denunciation by several agents, will not help the reputation of Brussels in Flanders, and even less that – already unenviable – of French-speaking socialist representatives.
This waste of public money within an organization which constitutes the last barrier against poverty is outrageous, both towards the most vulnerable and the taxpayers who see their money flying out the window. The politicization of social assistance is shocking, even disgusting. The CPAS, to which the State discharges certain responsibilities, cannot be a sieve for the public treasury. When brought to light, this disastrous management must stop in Anderlecht, as well as in all other administrations guilty of such abuses…
