General Principles
The OSSO is a voluntary scheme guaranteed by the Belgian state that offers limited social security coverage to individuals working outside the European Economic Area. Participation in the General Scheme is the basis for affiliation and any entitlement to a retirement pension, holiday pay for pensioners, allowances in case of illness, maternity or disability and deferred health care insurance. In addition to the General Scheme, it is also possible to subscribe to complementary insurance cover for health care, occupational and non-occupational accidents.
The future of the OSSO
In June 2012, François Florizoone was appointed the government’s special commissioner to examine the opportunity to reform the current OSSO regime. He recently filed his final report, which has in the meantime been approved by the government. The following general principles have been set and will be refined and transposed into actual measures the upcoming year:
- A single desk for expats will be kept
- The OSSO will be incorporated into the social security office of the provincial and local government services in the second semester of 2014, but will function as a separate directorate-general. This will guarantee certain level of autonomy for the expat services.
- The current rights of affiliates will remain unchanged
- The overseas social security scheme will be subject to changes that should be implemented by 2015.
To date, no further information regarding the reform is available. We will of course keep you updated on this topic.
For questions, please contact Sandrine Le Clef (+32 3 259 32 28) or Nadja De Bie (+32 3 259 37 37)
