Author
Material or financial aid?
Since the adoption of the Reception Act in 2007, the system of reception conditions for applicants for international protection has shifted completely from financial assistance to purely material assistance. This includes accommodation, food, clothing, medical, social and psychological help, access to interpretation services and legal representation, access to training, a voluntary return programme, and a small daily allowance (so-called pocket money). Nevertheless, as discussed below, the help can be partially delivered in cash, as is the case in the Local Reception Initiatives (LRI). The Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Applicants (Fedasil) coordinates the whole reception structure. Fedasil regularly issues internal instructions on implementing specific rights provided for in the Reception Act, as referred to throughout this report.
Since 2020, Fedasil encourages voluntary departure from the reception centre with support via meal vouchers, aiming to encourage persons with a solution for accommodation outside the reception network (e.g. with friends or family) to leave the centre, all the while supporting them financially through meal vouchers (see Allowances in case of no material reception).[1]
Collective or individual?
The current reception model, the implementation of which started in 2016, generally assigns people to collective reception centres. Only applicants with very specific vulnerabilities or reception needs are directly assigned to specialised ‘individual places’ in NGO reception structures or Local Reception Initiatives (LRI) managed by the PCSW’s in municipalities.[2] In 2025, only 13% of the reception network consisted of individual places.[3] The current government plans to gradually fade out the individual reception places, and wishes to only provide reception in collective centres. As a result, on 17 March 2025, the new Minister for Asylum and Migration announced that she would end the additional subsidy for new LRI’s.[4]. Several actors have reacted to this measure with criticism, because of the ongoing shortage of reception places and because of the advantages of small-scale local reception.
Collective centres are distributed over the Belgian territory in different types of infrastructure (old military buildings or hospitals or schools, prefabricate buildings, etc.) and vary in terms of capacity (from less than 100 to over 500 places). In collective centres, most reception conditions are delivered in-kind: meals, clothing, access to sanitary facilities, socio-legal support, medical and psychological care, daily allowance (‘pocket money’), trainings… In individual reception places, persons are hosted in smaller living units, alone or with a few other persons. Certain services are provided by the NGO or PCSW (socio-legal support, medical and psychological care, information about education or access to training…), and the living unit provides the facilities allowing the person to provide for their own basic daily needs, for which the person gets a weekly allowance.
For the assignment to a specific centre, Fedasil should legally consider the centre’s occupation rate, the applicant’s family situation, age, health condition,[5] vulnerability and the procedural language of their case. There are no monitoring or evaluation reports about the effective assessment of all these elements in practice. Albeit legally binding criteria, these do not seem to always be taken into consideration. In theory, an applicant for international protection or their social assistants can ask to change centre at any given time during the procedure, based on these criteria. Fedasil itself can also decide to change the location of reception, based on these criteria. Currently, the possibilities to change centre on the applicant’s request are limited to the situations enlisted by Fedasil in its internal instructions (see below Transfers to suitable reception).
According to the law, all applicants for international protection can apply to be transferred to an individual accommodation structure after 6 months in a collective centre.[6] Where the person’s application for international protection has already been refused at first instance procedure by the CGRS, the transfer will be refused or postponed. However, due to the high occupancy rate of the reception system, transfer applications of applicants whose procedure is still ongoing cannot systematically be answered favourably either.[7] This means that applicants stay much longer in collective structures (see Conditions in Reception Facilities). In 2025, no transfers to individual reception centres were granted for persons whose procedure was still ongoing.[8]
Specific rules concerning transfer to individual reception structures apply to the following categories:
- Persons with a high chance of recognition (nationality with recognition rate above 80%) who are still awaiting a decision of the CGRS can ask to be assigned to LRI after a 2-month stay in collective reception centres. In March 2025 nationals of the following countries had a high chance of recognition:[9]
- Burundi
- Eritrea
- Yemen
- Syria
- Libya
- Persons staying in collective structures when granted a legal stay of more than 3 months (for example, refugee status) have the choice between moving to an individual reception structure for 2 months (can be extended) or leaving the collective structure with support of a meal voucher (see End of the right to reception).
Persons reaching Belgium through the resettlement scheme and applying for asylum upon arrival are sheltered in one of the 5 collective centres who have places for resettled refugees. In March 2025 the Minister for Asylum & Migration announced that she would stop the Belgian resettlement scheme for as long as there is a shortage of reception places.[10]
In September 2023, a new centre with 115 places exclusively for resettled refugees opened in Alveringem, the first of its kind. The opening of this centre aims to ensure that the resettlement programme is not hindered by the (lack of) availability of reception places in the regular reception network.[11] Once persons who arrived through the resettlement scheme obtain international protection, they need to stay in a collective structure for 3 to 6 weeks before they can apply for an individual reception place. They can stay in the individual reception place for a transition period of 6 months, which is longer than the general transition period (see End of the right to reception). Because the government paused the resettlement programme, the centre is temporarily used as a ‘regular’ reception centre.[12]
NGOs have requested for an evaluation of the current reception model. An evaluation of the reception model was planned in 2021 but has been postponed and has not started yet on the day of writing (March 2026).[13]
Transfers to suitable reception facilities
Within 30 days after the arrival in the assigned reception place, an evaluation should be made to see if the individual reception needs of the asylum applicant are met. After that, a regular assessment is made – at least every six months – during the entire stay of the asylum applicant in the reception system.[14] The Reception Act allows changing an asylum applicant’s reception place if the assigned place turns out to be not adapted to the individual needs.[15] Two instructions of Fedasil enlist specific criteria to be met before a transfer to another, more adapted (individual or collective) place can be allowed.[16] The request for a transfer can be done either by the asylum applicant or by the reception facility in agreement with the applicant for international protection, but the actual application always needs to be done by the reception facility.
A transfer based on medical reasons can be requested if the place is not adapted to the medical needs of the applicant. This includes when the asylum applicant:
- has a severe handicap which is incompatible with the assigned place;
- has limited mobility and there is no possibility to adapt the infrastructure or to get help from family members;
- has a severe pathology which requires having a hospital nearby;
- loses their autonomy and has no family member that can help;
- has a specific medical need;
- needs to live with a very strict diet (e.g. coeliac, no salt etc.);
- is in danger because of certain diseases present in the centre, e.g. has a weak immune system;
- has an addiction and does substitute therapy which necessitates the presence of a pharmacy close-by;
- has psychiatric problems which are not compatible with the everyday life of a collective reception centre;
- needs to support a first-degree family member who is in the hospital;
- is in need of continuous care and needs to be transferred to a care institution.
A transfer based on other grounds than medical reasons can be requested if it is not possible to adapt the assigned place to the individual needs of the applicant and if they meet one of the following criteria:
- Language of the school of the children: their children went to school in a region speaking a different language for at least three months or they have gained sufficient knowledge of that other language to be able to be taught in that language;
- A close family member (e.g. partner or minor children) lives in another reception centre on the Belgian territory. The term ‘family member’ can be broadened if the asylum applicant is categorised as vulnerable;
- Employment: the asylum applicants has been employed (at least a half-time position and not a student job) for at least one month and has paid contributions. They should not have been excluded from shelter;
- Training or education: the asylum applicant has subscribed to higher education or to a training provided by VDAB or Forem;
- The asylum applicant feels isolated because they are the only person in the centre belonging to a certain nationality, or they are the only one speaking a certain language, which clearly impacts their psychological wellbeing.
Decisions refusing a transfer can be challenged in front of the Labour Court within 3 months. For example, on 24 October 2023, the Labour tribunal of Liège obliged Fedasil to transfer an applicant with severe medical and psychological issues from a collective centre far away from Brussels – where he needed to be regularly for medical appointments – and where he was housed in a caravan with common sanitation facilities, to a centre with a personal room with own sanitary facilities and closer to or with good connection to Brussels.[17]
Financial allowances
Pocket money
All applicants, whether in collective or individual reception places, receive a fixed daily amount of pocket money in cash.[18] In 2025, adults and all children from 12 years on who attend school received € 10.3 a week, younger children and children of 12 years of age or older who do not attend school received € 6.0 a week, and unaccompanied children of any age under 18 during the first phase of shelter (in the ‘observation and orientation centres’) receive € 7.2 a week.[19]
Allowances in individual reception facilities (NGO or LRI)
Asylum applicants in individual NGO or LRI places all receive a weekly amount in cash or in meal vouchers, to provide for material needs autonomously; this ‘weekly allowance’ includes a budget for food[20] and personal hygiene and the pocket money. It does not include budget for costs related to e.g. school, public transport, cleaning products, leisure, etc. For 2025, the amounts were as follows on a monthly (4-week) basis:[21]
| Category of applicant | Allowance in LRI |
| Single adult | € 268-288 |
| Additional adult | € 200-220 |
| Additional child <3 years | € 140-160 |
| Additional child 3-12 years | € 76-92 |
| Additional child 12-18 years | € 84-100 |
| Single-parent extra allowance | € 40 |
| Unaccompanied child | € 268-288 |
Besides this, the organising authority of the accommodation remains in charge of certain material needs such as transport, clothing, school costs, interpreters, etc. Since the LRI have a lot of autonomy as regards the way they are organised, they can choose autonomously if and how they distribute material aid. This means that asylum applicants might exceptionally receive a financial allowance that equals the social welfare benefit (called ‘social integration’) for nationals, diminished with the rent for the flat or house they are accommodated in and expenses.
Allowances in case of no material reception
Material reception conditions in Belgium are mostly provided in kind in the form of accommodation centres. Therefore, most applicants are assigned to an accommodation centre rendering access to a social welfare allowance impossible. Applicants who are refused access to an accommodation centre, also cannot request a social welfare allowance. Before August 2025, there were some exceptions to this rule that allowed specific categories of applicants to obtain a social welfare allowance:
- In case of exceptional circumstances Fedasil could choose not to assign an accommodation centre at the moment of the registration of an application.[22] In this case, the applicant could go to a PCSW and request a social welfare allowance. In practice this exception was used for applicants that could not be suitably accommodated in a collective centre.
- Applicants could, at any time, request the withdrawal of their designation to an accommodation centre.[23] If this request was accepted by Fedasil, the applicant could approach a PCSW to apply for a social welfare allowance. In practice, such requests were granted to applicants who had close relatives in Belgium with permanent residence and who were able to provide them with accommodation.
The government wanted to end this system, considering it as a ‘pull factor’ towards Belgium. Therefore, in August 2025, it adopted a law that deleted these exceptions from the Reception Act.[24] However, during the legislative train, the Council of State provided a critical advice on this law proposal.[25] They stated that the deletion of these exceptions limits the forms of material reception conditions that Fedasil can provide to applicants. If the reception Agency would be capable of providing access to accommodation centres for all applicants with a right to reception this would not be an issue. However, in the current context of reception shortages this might be problematic as it limits the legal remedies applicants must successfully obtain to access to material reception conditions. The Council of State expressed doubts about the conformity of this law proposal with articles 17 and 18 of the Reception Directive 2013/33/EU and with article 3 of the European Convention on Human rights.
Despite these fundamental critiques, the government adopted this draft law which entered into force on 2 August 2025. As a result, articles 11, §3, 4° and 13 were deleted from the Reception Act. In the winter of 2025, applicants who were negatively impacted by this law introduced a suspensive appeal at the Constitutional Court. On 26 February 2026, the Constitutional Court suspended the deletion of these articles in the Reception Act.[26] Following the reasoning of the S.A & R.J. judgement of the CJEU from 1 August 2025[27], the Court found that removing the possibility for authorities to provide the material assistance to which applicants for international protection are entitled in forms other than in-kind assistance in reception centers could expose the Belgian State to a sufficiently serious breach of Union law. This would particularly affect applicants for international protection who, for one reason or another, cannot receive assistance in kind and would consequently be deprived of their right to live in dignity. After suspension, the Constitutional Court is legally obliged to rule on the merits of the case within a period of three months. At the time of writing (March 2026) no judgement on the merits has been given.
In 2020, Fedasil issued an instruction on ‘voluntary departure with support via meal vouchers’, aiming to encourage persons with a reception solution outside the reception network (e.g. with friends or family) to leave the centre, all the while supporting them financially with meal vouchers (see Allowances in case of no material reception).[28] This instruction applies to persons who have an ongoing procedure for international protection and have been staying in the reception network for an uninterrupted period of at least 1 month. Unaccompanied minors can also qualify for the measure under certain conditions (e.g. at least 16 years old and sufficiently autonomous, agreement of the guardian, etc). Persons to who this measure is applied receive biweekly meal vouchers of € 140 per adult and € 60 per minor on an electronic card or in paper format until the end of their right to material aid connected to the ongoing asylum procedure or until their reintegration into the reception network. Except for unaccompanied minors, the application of this measure leads to a designation of a ‘Code 207 No-show’. Apart from the meal vouchers, the person no longer receives reimbursement of other costs (such as costs related to school or public transport). Only reimbursement of medical expenses is ensured, as for other persons with a code 207 no-show, via application through the medical requisitorium (see Health care). The instruction stresses that people should be thoroughly informed of all the consequences of subscribing to this system. However, their decision is not final: as long as the asylum procedure is ongoing, they can always apply for a reintegration in the reception network. In 2025, 6,541 applicants in procedure left the reception network voluntarily with support via meal vouchers (545/month on average).
[1] Fedasil, ‘Instruction on the transition of material assistance to social welfare services: measures for residents of collective reception structures and accompaniment in the transition phase’, 25 July 2024, available in Dutch here and in French here, p. 3. Meal vouchers are vouchers that can be used in almost any supermarket to buy food or food-related items. Employees (in all kinds of sectors) often receive meal vouchers as part of their salary as well.
[2] Regeerakkoord, 9 October 2014, available at: http://bit.ly/2k2yJfn. See also Myria, Contact meeting, 21 June 2016, available at: http://bit.ly/2k3obi9.
[3] Information provided by Fedasil in March 2026: 4,432 individual places on a total of 34,091 reception places.
[4] VRT, ‘Van Bossuyt ends subsidy for new Local Reception Initiatives (LRI), 17 March 2025, available in Dutch here.
[5] See for example a recent ruling of the Labour court of Liège, 23/1656/A, 24 October 2023, available in French at https://www.agii.be/sites/default/files/20231024_arbrb_luik.pdf. The court finds that given the serious health issues of the applicant, he should be assigned a reception place in a centre with a personal room and access to private sanitary facilities, in Brussels or a city from which Brussels is easily accessible.
[6] Article 12 Reception Act.
[7] Information provided by Fedasil.
[8] Information provided by Fedasil, April 2026.
[9] Fedasil, Instruction concerning transfers from collective reception to a Local reception Initiative (LRI) – designation of asylum seekers with a high rate of recognition – update, 9 November 2021, available in Dutch here.
[10] VRT, ‘Minister Van Bossuyt (N-VA) puts an end to resettlement, the only legal way to come to Belgium’, 26 March 2025, available in Dutch here.
[11] Fedasil, What is resettlement?, available in Dutch here and Welcome first residents!, available in Dutch here.
[12] Information provided by Fedasil, April 2026.
[13] Information provided by Fedasil, March 2026.
[14] Royal Decree of 25 April 2007 on the modalities of the assessment of the individual situation of the reception beneficiary.
[15] Article 22 Reception Act.
[16] Fedasil, Instruction on the transfer to an adapted place for medical reasons, 7 May 2018, available in Dutch here; Fedasil, Instruction on the transfer to an adapted place for other reasons, 7 May 2018, available in Dutch here.
[17] Labour tribunal Liège, decision nr. 23/1656/A of 24 October 2023, available in French here.
[18] Article 34 Reception Act.
[19] Information provided by Fedasil, April 2026.
[20] No food is provided in the context of individual reception facilities; residents need to cook themselves.
[21] Extrapolated from the weekly amount, times 4: Information provided by Fedasil in April 2026.
[22] Article 11, §3, 4° Reception Act.
[23] Article 13 Reception Act.
[24] Act of 12 January 2007 on the reception of asylum seekers and certain other categories of foreign nationals, 23 July 2025, available in French here.
[25] Belgian Chamber of Representatives, ‘Draft law amending the law of 12 January 2007 on the reception of asylum seekers and certain other categories of foreign nationals’, DOC 56 0914/001, 5 June 2025, p. 11-19, available in French and Dutch here.
[26] Belgian Constitutional Court 26 February 2026, 23/2026, available in French here.
[27] CJEU 1 August 2025, C-97/24, S.A. en R.J., ECLI:EU:C:2025:594, §37-43.
[28] Fedasil Instruction 19 March 2020, ‘Voluntary departure for residents of collective centres – support via meal vouchers for persons with own reception solution’, available in Dutch here or in French here. Meal vouchers are vouchers that can be used in almost any supermarket to buy food or food-related items. Employees (in all kinds of sectors) often receive meal vouchers as part of their salary as well.