Annual holiday scheme – Financial equilibrium and assessing the management quality of holiday funds: 2023 follow-up of the recommendations

general assembly on October 18, 2023

The Belgian Court of Audit examined in 2021 the extent to which the solidarity transfer mechanism between the annual holiday funds, introduced in 2017, actually contributed to the financial equilibrium of the scheme. It also analysed the accountability system introduced at the same time to guarantee the management quality of holiday funds. It concluded that the solidarity transfer mechanism was completely disconnected from the result of the benefits to be financed and that the accountability system was not an adequate incentive to guarantee the management quality of holiday funds. In its 2023 report, the Court noted that these mechanisms and the assimilation in 2020-2022 of days of temporary unemployment to days worked, have had a significant impact on the financial situation of the scheme, which had already been in deficit. The Court considered that five out of the eight recommendations made in 2021 have not been met and three are being implemented.