Contributions to supplementary insurance schemes

Subject: Contributions to supplementary insurance schemes

In accordance with a Royal Decree issued on 8 May 2018, people who are mainly resident in Belgium and are (compulsorily) insured in another EU Member State on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 relating to social security must pay into a supplementary insurance scheme in Belgium. However, many people already receive the benefits offered by these schemes in another EU Member State, because they are insured there (cross-border commuters, etc.).

1. Is it lawful to oblige EU citizens to pay into the Belgian social security system when they already have social security cover in another Member State?

2. Is the obligation to pay into two social security systems in two separate Member States in line with EU legislation?

3. If so, for what services would a Member State be authorised to insist on contributions?

Answer given by Ms Thyssen on behalf of the European Commission

(5 April 2019)

Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security system provides that persons falling within the scope of the regulation shall be subject to the social security legislation of a single Member State only, and that such legislation is determined in accordance with Title II of that regulation.

In Belgium, in addition to being subject to a compulsory social security system, a person may join a mutuality in the framework of the statutory sickness insurance scheme. Should the person choose to do so, he or she will also be obliged to sign up for the additional sickness insurance scheme organised by this mutuality. The Commission takes the view that this obligation, which also covers persons residing in Belgium but insured in another Member State (e.g. frontier workers), is not contrary to EC law, in particular the Articles 17, 24 or 26 of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004.

Persons residing in Belgium but insured in another Member State are not obliged to join a mutuality in order to have access to sickness benefits in kind. They can, if they wish, join the ‘Caisse auxiliaire d'assurance maladie‐invalidité’ (CAAMI-HZI V (1)) that does not offer any additional coverage. As a result, it is possible in the framework of the Belgian statutory sickness insurance scheme, not to benefit from any additional coverage to the statutory scheme and therefore not to pay any additional contribution. Secondly, the additional sickness insurance scheme falls outside the material scope of the EU coordination of social security schemes.

⋅1∙ https://www.caami-hziv.fgov.be/fr | | ( | | )