VRT’s current affairs flagship Pano has probed the market of fake addresses available on Belgian social media. People don’t live at these addresses, but use them to apply to local social services for benefits. Benefits like the minimum subsistence allowance – confusingly called the ‘living wage’ in Belgium. VRT News reporters posed as landlords in Anderlecht and received a massive response from people who are eager to rent an address, if only to apply to local social services for an allowance.
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‘Address for hire’: VRT News uncovers the ease of benefit fraud in Brussels
Colin Clapson
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‘I still live with my parents, but now that I'm an adult, it's better to be domiciled somewhere else, especially for the local social services department. Brussels is best. There, officials are less strict than in Flanders.’
This is just one of the many responses we receive when we post an ad on Facebook Marketplace: ‘Adresse à louer’ (Address for hire). On the online sales platform, we offer an address in the municipality of Anderlecht, in the south-west of Brussels.
Benefits with few checks
A VRT News investigation yesterday revealed that the Anderlecht social services department sometimes doles out allowances like minimum subsistence benefit to claimants who are not entitled to them. Eight social workers testify that applicants are barely checked. They also hear of ‘clientelism’ on the part of those in charge at the local social services department.
In Anderlecht social workers at local social services are struggling with a sky-high workload. In several Brussels social services departments, a single social worker deals with around 120 files. But according to the staff in Anderlecht, this rises to 200 files per social worker. Long waiting times encourage claimants to report directly to the chairman of the local social services department, who according to staff exerts pressure to award allowances.
False address for 250 euros
Busy local social services departments like Anderlecht are said to attract people because there are fewer checks. In the jargon: there’s a suction effect. On open social media Pano found a lot of addresses being offered for rent in the area. Several sources maintain these are often fake addresses: not an address where people live, but one they use to get support from local social services. After all, you need a domicile address for that.
To test whether the addresses really were fake, reporters posed as interested tenants. Pano visited one of the people offering an address online. During the conversation, we make it clear that we do not really want to live at the address. ‘You don't want to stay there? Just the address? That's no problem,’ we are told. The cost of an address like that is around 250 to 300 euros a month.
Massive interest
Pano also did the reverse test offering an address in the catchment area of Anderlecht social services. Quite quickly, there is a massive response to the ad. The people who are interested are often quite open about their intentions. ‘I live in Dilbeek with my wife and daughter. We have a flat there. On the first floor, with 3 rooms and a private carpark. But we want to be able to claim from social services,’ says one person.
‘I live in Germany, in the city of Aachen, but I need a Belgian address to justify my unemployment benefit,’ says someone else. ‘I live in Flanders,’ we are told. ‘But it's too difficult in Flanders. In Brussels, the social services are a thousand times easier to trick. They have a reputation for leaving people alone.’
Greater benefits
According to the social workers Pano spoke with, they often receive applications from couples who say they live alone. Claimants living alone receive higher benefits. ‘Everyone is divorced nowadays,’ an employee at Anderlecht social services says anonymously. ‘It is unbelievable. Sometimes they even have children after their ‘divorce’! It was an accident, they claim.’
Pano also got a similar response to their fake ad. ‘I live with my husband, but for my benefit claim it would be better if I was living alone. That's the problem. He is working now, and they want to cancel my benefit,’ says a woman interested in the address. ‘Hey, it's not to live there. It's just an address that is more helpful!’