Jan Geens and Hilde Willems with son Simon. — © Jan Crab
Good news for Simon Geens (25) from Leuven, known from the TV program Down the Road: the labor court in Leuven has ruled that he is still entitled to a full personal budget. The Flemish government had halved this in 2022 as an experiment, but is now being pushed back.
Friday, February 16, 2024 at 9:07 PM
Jan Geens and Hilde Willems already applied for a personal budget for their son Simon from the Flemish Agency for Persons with Disabilities (VAPH) in 2016. He has Down syndrome and is therefore in need of care. He needs help with his personal care, household chores and transportation, among other things. With that budget they could at least partially pay for that additional care. There was no discussion about it with the VAPH: Simon and his parents were entitled to that budget, they were told a few months later, and they were placed on the waiting list in priority group 2. That is the group with not the most urgent needs , but a clear need for care and support.
Experiment
“At the end of 2022 we finally received good news: it was up to us to get the budget,” says dad Jan. But there was also an unexpected addition: due to a temporary reform by Flemish Minister of Welfare Hilde Crevits (CD&V) – an experiment – 1,100 people suddenly received only half a budget. And Simon was one of them. “Many people have champagne ready for the day that letter arrives and you receive the budget,” says mother Hilde. “But for us it was a big disappointment. That was a blow to our bill.”
What is the personal budget?
The personal budget is allocated by the Flemish Agency for Persons with Disabilities (VAPH) to adults with disabilities, so that they can pay for care and support. This can be used to pay for home care, transport, housing support and an accompanying person for a day trip.
Simon lives with other young people in the Honkhuis in Leuven, but half a budget was not enough to cover that. “We then suddenly saw our future crossed out,” say Hilde and Jan. “A very nasty period then began. But we didn’t stop there. We sought counsel and filed a lawsuit challenging that experiment.”
Sentence
With success, as has now turned out. The labor court in Leuven has considered the case and annulled the VAPH’s decision to halve Simon’s personal budget. He should get a full budget from now on. The judgment states, among other things, that when half a budget was allocated, no prospect of payment for the other half was given and that the “legitimate expectations” of Simon Geens “and many others” were violated.
It is not the first time that a court has criticized the Flemish government about halving its budgets. Several judges have already ruled in favor of people with disabilities.
Give a signal
“We were very angry, but now we are really happy,” says Hilde. “We had to stand on the barricades for all the people on the waiting list. Because many people with disabilities are vulnerable and filing a lawsuit requires a lot of energy and money. We hope to send a signal to the government: make people with disabilities a priority. They must also be able to participate in society.”
The VAPH now has thirty days to appeal the verdict. There’s a real chance she will. Appeals have also been lodged in other cases involving the personal budget.