Belgium Agreement and foreign pension information 106-04007000

In Belgium, federal legislation requires the compulsory payment of social security contributions, usually through deductions from paid employment.

Contributions insure individuals against disability and unemployment and provides for income in the form of a pension once the person reaches retirement age.

Social security coverage is divided into salaried workers, the self-employed and civil servants, including social assistance for those with low income. The legislation is the responsibility of the Belgian government but administration, collection of contributions and payment of pensions is the responsibility of the various institutions and semi-public institutions.

The Agreement with Belgium started on 1 July 2005. There are no previous versions.

For Australia:

Department of Social Services (DSS)

For Belgium:

• Federale Overheidsdienst Sociale Zekerheid (FOD)
• Service Public Federal Securite Sociale (SPF)
• Federal Public Service Social Security (FPS)

For Australia:

Services Australia

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for double coverage provisions.

For Belgium:

Old-age and survivors insurance

Salaried employees:

• Federale Pensioendienst (FPD or Federal Pension Service)
• Bureau Conventions Internationales (BCI) and Bureau Internationale Overeenkomsten (BIO) are separate sections within the FPD
• BCI is the French speaking section and BIO is the Dutch speaking section

Self-employed:

• National Institute for the Social Security of the Self-employed (NISSE)

Note:

• Rijksinstituut voor de Sociale Verzerkeringen Zelfstandigen (RSVZ) and Institut National d'Assurances Sociales pour Travailleurs Indépendants (INASTI) are separate sections within the NISSE
• RSVZ is the Dutch speaking section and INASTI is the French speaking section

Disability insurance

General invalidity:

• National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV)
• Institut National de l'Assurance Maladie Invalidité (INAMI) and Rijksinstituut voor Ziekte-en Invaliditeitsverzekering (RIZIV) are separate sections
• INAMI is the French speaking section and RIZIV is the Dutch speaking section

Marine merchants:

• Hulp en Voorzorgskas voor Zeevarenden (HVKZ)
• Caisse de Secours et de Prévoyance en faveur des Marins (CSPM)

For Australia:

Centrelink International Services (CIS)

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for double coverage provisions

For Belgium:

See Competent institutions.

Belgium has a large number of independent funds that manage health and disability insurance. These funds are partnered with several larger agencies, for example, the National Federation of Socialist Health Insurance Funds. RIZIV/INAMI is the liaison body and supervisor of all health funds and liaisons related to invalidity insurance should be to and from this body.

Under the Agreement with Belgium, information held about customers may be exchanged between the liaison agencies to determine entitlement to payments under the Agreement and under either country’s domestic legislation (Article 21.1).

For information on bulk data exchange, see International Data Exchange Program and auto indexation of foreign pensions.

The following liaison form is completed by Centrelink International Services (CIS) and sent to Belgium:

• AUS187BE - Australia/Belgium Agreement on Social Security

For help with creating and completing the liaison form, see Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

Belgium does not use a liaison form.

For:

• Australian claims - usually a covering letter and copy of the Belgian pension Notice of Grant (NOG) that is issued to the customer or screen print of Belgian pension record is received
• Belgian pension claim - usually a copy of the Belgian pension notice that is issued to the customer is received
• general liaison requests - usually a response written on the Australian liaison form request or screen print of Belgian pension records is received

Note: Belgium Notices of Grant (NOG) generally only advise the net rate and do not specify the arrears period. A separate notice issued after the NOG, which provides this information should be requested from customers. See Life certificates, notices and documents.

Under the Administrative Arrangements, each country will arrange for an agreed report to be and sent with claims for invalidity/disability pensions.

Medical examinations may also be undertaken upon request for foreign pension claim purpose. Generally, the liaison agency will contact Services Australia with the request. There is no provision for reimbursement of costs to either country.

The customer should contact Services Australia if they receive a direct request from the liaison agency to undertake a medical examination. Advise the customer to go through Services Australia’s foreign pension medical assessment process. Where the customer has already undertaken a medical examination based on a direct request from the Agreement partner without consulting Services Australia, the customer should contact the liaison agency to discuss any possible reimbursement options.

If a customer is claiming reimbursement of costs based on undertaking a medical examination requested by Services Australia for foreign pension purpose, consider all evidence provided. For example, if incorrect advice was provided to the customer by Services Australia that caused them to seek an independent medical examination which caused the customer to be out of pocket.

See Customer compensation and Act of Grace.

Samples of forms, foreign documents and translations are available through the Residence and International program homepage.

The Belgium Agreement includes double coverage provisions. Certificates of coverage are used to confirm exemptions.

Any enquiries about double coverage or certificates of coverage should be directed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website.

Any questions about taxation of pensions or the requirement to lodge a tax return should be directed to:

• In the other country - the tax authority in the other country
• In Australia - the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website

See general information on taxation, including issuing Australian payment summaries.

Tax treaty

Australia has a double tax agreement with Belgium that avoids the customer paying tax in both countries.

A person who is a resident in one country (according to the definition in the tax agreement) generally only pays tax on pensions in that country

Tax deductions from income by one country may be used as a credit against tax payable in the other country.

Tax deduction

Belgian pensions may be taxed (bedrijfsvoorheffing/précompte professionnel) at the source.

The gross rate of Belgian pension, before any deduction, is maintained.

Belgian tax year

Belgium uses the calendar year (1 January - 31 December) as the tax year.

Australia has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) with Belgium.

See general information on health insurance and Medicare coverage.

Any queries about:

• Health insurance coverage in the other country - tell the customer to contact the tax/health insurance authority in the other country
• Medicare coverage - direct them to Medicare

Pensioners in Belgium usually have a health insurance deduction taken out of their Belgian pension:

• ZIV-bijdrage (Ziekte en invaliditeitsverzekering)
• Cotisation AMI (Assurance Maladie Invalidité)

The gross rate of Belgian pension, before any deduction, including for health insurance, is assessed.

The official languages of Belgium are Dutch, French and German. English is also widely used. Forms for agreement purposes are in Dutch and French.

See Dutch and French naming conventions and pronunciation.

Telephone country code is +32.

French speaking person - Street address (house)

Title First Name Surname [Addressee]

Rue du Vivier 7 [Street name + street number]

1000 Bruxelles [Postcode + town]

BELGIUM

Dutch speaking person - Street address (apartment)

Title First Name Surname [Addressee]

Zennestraat 32 bus 20 [Street name and number + ‘Bus’ + apartment no]

9800 Deinze [Postcode + Town]

BELGIUM

French speaking person - Post Office Box delivery

Title First Name Surname [Addressee]

Postbus 15 [Post Office Box + number]

9000 Gent Centrum [Postcode + municipality + Post Office name]

BELGIUM

Dutch speaking person - Post Office Box delivery

Title First Name Surname [Addressee]

Boite Postale 15 [Post Office Box + number]

1000 Bruxelles De Broukere [Postcode + municipality + Post Office name]

BELGIUM

Note:

• Only use one language in the address
• Use the terms bte, bus, box or boîte in front of the post office box number

Belgium was the second country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage and have recognised it since 1 June 2003.

For Australia, the Agreement with Belgium (Article 2.1) covers:

• Age Pension
• Disability Support Pension (DSP)

Note: for DSP, the wording of the Agreement only applies to a person who became disabled while an Australian resident (autonomously qualified). A person should not need to use the Agreement to claim DSP. Autonomous DSP (severely disabled) may transfer to the agreement to extend portability (Article 18) See Portability.

Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements use the same methods and processes as domestic claims.

Forms to claim an Australian payment in Belgium can be obtained by:

• downloading the relevant form from the Services Australia website. See Resources
• contacting Centrelink International Services (CIS)
• contacting the Belgian authorities

Australian forms needed

Forms to claim an Australian payment are available in either bilingual English/Dutch and English/French.

The customer is to complete and provide the following:

All claims:

• AUS140BED/AUS140BEF - Australian Pension Claim - Social Security Agreement between Australia and Belgium
• Mod(IA)BED/Mod(IA)BEF - Income and Assets - Belgium

Note: there are no DSP claim forms because customers can only be transferred to agreement DSP for portability purposes.

Forms can be lodged at any Belgian social security office.

Under Section 5 of the Administrative Arrangements, the Belgian liaison agency will:

• accept all forms/documents and date stamp the AUS140 form
• verify the customer’s identity and personal details, and
• send the form(s) and any supporting documentation to Services Australia with a liaison form specifying periods of coverage in Belgium and information regarding Belgian pensions

See Exchange of Information and liaison forms.

Duplicate/recycled claims

Belgium may send duplicate Australian claim forms of previously rejected claims. This can be identified by the date the customer signed the AUS140 form. When this occurs:

• the claim should be accepted as an intent to claim
• send the customer new Australian claim forms

If a person is not an Australian resident and in Australia on the date the claim is made, they may use the Agreement to meet the residence rules for claims if, on that date, they are:

• an Australian resident, a resident of Belgium or another Agreement country that accepts claims for Australian pension under other agreements (Article 15.1), and
• physically present in Australia, Belgium or that third country (Article 15.2)

Note: for DSP, the wording of the Agreement only applies to a person who became disabled while an Australian resident (autonomously qualified). A person should not need to use the Agreement to claim DSP. Autonomous DSP (severely disabled) may transfer to the Agreement to extend portability. See Portability.

Claims under the Belgian Agreement

Claims for Australian payments under the Belgium Agreement may be lodged in certain Australian Agreement countries.

See the Claim lodgement matrix.

Accepting other Agreement claims

Belgium will accept claims for Australian benefits under other Australian social security agreements.

The customer must also satisfy any other rules under the other agreement and social security law provisions, including portability. For example, DSP can be claimed in a third country but has an ongoing residence requirement. Therefore, if the claimant is:

• living in the other country, DSP cannot be paid
• temporarily in the other country, DSP may generally be paid for the period it is portable under domestic legislation.

The normal rules for working out the date a claim is ‘made’ and the start date apply to a claim under the Agreement with Belgium. The Agreement also allows:

• the date of lodgement of a claim for an Australian payment in Belgium to be used as the date of lodgement of that claim in Australia (Article 23.1), and
• the date of lodgement of a Belgian pension as the date of lodgement of the corresponding Australian payment (FP claim = AU claim) if:
• the person declares a period of residence in Australia at the time of claiming the Belgian payment (Article 23.2)

For coding help, see:

• Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements) and
• Start Day (CLK)

The Agreement allows:

• totalisation of periods of qualifying Australian residence and periods of coverage in Belgium to meet any minimum periods to qualify for an Australian pension, for example, 10 years for Age Pension (Article 16.1)
• the total of any non-continuous Belgian periods of coverage to be considered to be continuous to meet any continuous residence requirement to claim an Australian pension (Article 16.2)

Note:

• Overlapping Australian residence and Belgian periods of coverage are only counted once (Article 16.3)
• Adjoining periods of Australian qualifying residence and Belgian periods of coverage, with a break of up to 3 months in between, can also be considered to be continuous (Policy)

See Resources in International Social Security Agreements for examples of totalisation.

Belgian period of coverage:

• means a period of insurance (a period during which contributions were paid) or any equivalent period, as defined in the Belgian legislation
• where equivalent periods may include deemed periods, such as for child rearing or military service
• where both actual periods and deemed periods may be used when totalising for Australian qualification purposes, as long as they are certified and don’t overlap
• must be certified by the Belgian competent institution

To be able to use the totalisation provisions, a person who is not an Australian resident at the date of lodgement must have at least 12 months Australian Working Life Residence (WLR) in Australia of which 6 months must be continuous (Article 16.4(a)).

Note: unlike WLR for rate, this period cannot be rounded.

No minimum WLR is required if the person is an Australian resident at the date of lodgement (Article 16.4(b)).

The Agreement allows the ongoing residential requirement for DSP to be met by customers who reside in Belgium (Article 5).

For customers outside Australia, the Agreement with Belgium (Article 17.1) refers to the overall rate calculation contained in section 12(1) of the Social Security (International Agreements) Act 1999.

This means customers paid under the Agreement have:

• a proportional rate paid according to their Australian Working Life Residence (WLR)
• the Rate Limiter/Limited Rate applied
• additional child amounts (s.14a SS(IA) 1999) included, if eligible
• their Belgian pension proportionalised (Randisi concession) for use in the income test using denominator of 300 (Article 17.1)

Note:

• In some circumstances their partner’s WLR may be used. See Working Life Residence (WLR)
• Autonomous customers who are paid a proportional rate and receiving a Belgium pension will also have the Randisi concession applied to their Belgium pension (Article 17.2)

Non-proportional rate extension

Customers paid under the Agreement and temporarily outside Australia, cannot have their non-proportional portability rate extended if they are unable to return to Australia.

Returns to Australia

The proportional rate continues to apply for the first 26 weeks of a temporary return to Australia (Article 17.3).

• For returns to Australia before 9 June 2018, manually code the Temporary Return to Aust Ind on the Residence Savings (RSS) screen.

Customers in Australia under the Agreement are generally paid a direct deduction rate (Article 17.4).

This Agreement includes a comparison rate in Australia (Article 17.6).

Departures from Australia

The inside Australia rate continues to be paid for the first 26 weeks of a temporary departure from Australia (Article 17.5).

Payments under the Agreement

Under the Agreement, provided the customer remains qualified, Australian payments are payable indefinitely in both countries, that is, for temporary or permanent absences (Article 5.1).

Third country portability under the Agreement

Portability to third countries for a customer paid under the Agreement is the same as for an autonomous customer leaving Australia (Article 5.3). See Portability of payments.

If necessary, a customer who receives an autonomous payment that stops being payable due to portability reasons can transfer to the Agreement to continue payment if:

• the payment is covered by the Agreement
• the customer meets any payment limitations, such as severely disabled, and
• the customer is able to meet the lodgement provisions of the Agreement

If transferred to the Agreement, all Agreement rules apply to the customer, including portability and rate of payment.

See Transfer to international social security agreements.

A person who would be autonomously qualified but is paid under the Agreement can transfer from the Agreement to autonomous only if they are an Australian resident and in Australia.

On return to Australia, system processing will automatically transfer to from the Agreement to autonomous if the person is an Australian resident who has only used the Agreement to extend their portability while outside Australia.

Former resident provisions may affect customers who transfer to autonomous if they leave Australia again within 2 years of becoming an Australian resident.

Australian payments may be issued to customers outside of Australia. If the customer intends to be outside of Australia:

• long-term (12 months or longer), their Australian payment may be issued to an overseas bank account. See Overseas Bank Account Details (OBAD) for payment requirements by country.
• for less than 12 months, payment will generally continue to their normal Australian bank account every 2 weeks.

See Delivery of payments to Centrelink customers outside Australia.

For Belgium, the Agreement covers the Belgian old-age and survivor insurance for salaried werknemer/salarié and self-employed zelfstandigen/indépendant and invalidity insurance for merchant marine, mine workers and the self-employed.

Main payments

Retirement Pension (AGE):

• Rustpensioen
• Pension de retraite

Invalidity Pension (INV):

• Arbeidsongeschiktheid
• Incapacité de travail

Survivor Pension (SUR):

• Overlevingspensioen
• Pension de survie

Supplementary payments/Allowances:

• Belgian compensatory supplement and social assistance payments
• Aanvulling/Aanvullende uitkeringen
• Paiements supplémentaires/complémentaires
• Holiday payment:

For Salaried workers only (Werknemer/Salarié)

• Vakantiegeld (VAK)
• Pécule de vacances (PEC)

• Annuities/Allowances:
• Rente/Rentes (Rate)
• Ouderdomsrente/Rente de viellesse (AGE)
• Weduwenrente /Rente de veuve (SUR)
• Heating allowance:
• Verwarmingstoelage
• Allocation de chauffage

The following known payments are paid by the Belgian authorities but are not covered under the Agreement:

Civil Servants payment:

• ensioendienst voor de Overheidssector (PDOS)
• Service des Pensions du Secteur Public (SdPSP)
• Centrale Dienst der Vaste Uitgaven-Pensioenen (CDVU)
• Service central des dépenses fixes-Pensions (SCDF)
• ORPSS (formally OSSOM) payment

For help with:

• Assessment of Belgian pensions, see Assessment
• Coding of Belgian pensions, see Eligibility and Coding

The requirement to claim to Belgian AGE and INV (for a person who was disabled in Belgium).

• Customers may claim Belgian SUR voluntarily.

See Foreign pension claims.

Eligibility and coding of foreign pensions tab contains detailed information on Belgian payments that are subject to CFP legislation.

Claim packs are available for AGE/SUR.

Claim packs are issued through the Foreign Pension System (FPS). See Assisting customers to claim a foreign pension.

Specific requirements for Belgian claims

The customer is to complete and provide the following:

AGE/SUR claims:

Note: bilingual English/Dutch or English/French versions are available.

• Application for a Belgian retirement or survivor’s pension (AUS-B2)

SUR only:

• Death certificate

INV claim:

Although Belgian invalidity payments are covered, the wording of the Agreement only applies to a person who became disabled while subject to the Belgian legislation. This means that a person should not need to be claiming in Australia and so there is no screening for Belgian invalidity.

If required, an RQI is issued through the Foreign Pension System (FPS) for Belgian INV.

Requests for additional information

If information provided with the claim for Belgium pension is incomplete, Belgium will send requests for information in Dutch or French, direct to customers.

Under the Agreement with Belgium (Article 12.3), Belgium may request confirmation of employment periods in Australia during AWLR for a customer who worked in one of the following occupations:

• miners (underground or surface)
• seamen (merchant navy)
• aviation personnel (flight and cabin crews)
• journalists

If there is no evidence of the customer having worked in one of the referenced occupations, treat the request as an ordinary AWLR request and not a request for employment details.

See Working Life Residence (WLR).

The Verification of Working life residence and employment in Australia (AUS027US) form is to be sent to the customer requesting verification.

Receipt of foreign pension claim by Services Australia

Under the Administrative Arrangements, Belgium forms can be lodged in Australia at any service centre. See Processing a foreign pension claim.

• All foreign pension claims and supporting documentation must be scanned, and
• The original foreign claim form and copies of supporting documentation must be sent in paper form to Centrelink International Services (CIS). See Processing a foreign pension claim

Centrelink International Services (CIS) only:

CIS will complete the following or arrange for the following to be completed as necessary and attach the documents to the foreign pension claim to send to the agreement country. See Agreement Liaison Detail (ALD) for method of transmission.

AGE and SUR claims:

• AUS187BE - Australia/Belgium Agreement on Social Security

If employment periods are required, manually record in Section 4 of the AUS187BE by removing the auto-populated WLR periods and noting in the ‘Other Information’ box that it is employment periods.

For help with creating and completing the liaison form, see Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

INV only:

• Do not send a liaison. Only send the completed INV RQI to the Belgian authorities
• The Belgian authorities will send a formal request is they require any documentation from Services Australia (for example, E213 - Detailed Medical Report and/or existing Australian medical documentation)

Enquiries regarding claims for Belgian payments in Belgium or a third country should be directed to the Belgian social security authorities.

Belgian pensions may be paid by direct deposit in Australia.

Any queries about the non-payment of Belgian pension should be directed to the Belgian pension authorities.

Agreement pensions are paid as 12 monthly payments per year.

Supplements or annuities may be paid annually.

Other benefits or private pensions are paid monthly or annually.

Belgian pensions must be recorded in the source currency - Euro (EUR). Official statements provide the foreign currency amounts.

Amounts recorded in source currency on the Foreign Pensions Details (FPD) screen must not be changed to the Australian dollar amount.

Note: payments into Australia are made in Australian dollars.

Belgian payments are increased ad hoc when the Consumer Price Index (CPI, or cost of living) exceeds specified levels.

For information on bulk data exchanges and auto adjusted CPI increases, see International Data Exchange Program and auto-indexation of foreign pensions.

• directly deducted (Article 17.4) and ignored in the income test (Article 8(8)(zc) Social Security Act 1991) for customers under the Belgian Agreement who are in Australia
• proportionalised and assessed as ordinary income (Article 17.1) for customers paid:
• under the Belgian Agreement who are outside Australia
• autonomously who are on a long-term outside Australia rate
• ordinary income (not proportionalised) for customers paid:
• autonomously who are inside Australia
• under another agreement other than Belgium or New Zealand who are inside or outside Australia

See Rate Calculation for when a direct deduction or proportional rate is applied.

Note:

• Each member of a couple is deemed to receive half of the total amount received by the couple (Article 17.7)
• Where a person in receipt of AGE is granted SUR, only one payment is received. In these cases, the rate of AGE should be updated and 'FIN-NOM' recorded against SUR in the Foreign Claim Details (FGD) screen

• Vakantiegeld/Pécule de vacances (VAK/PEC) - Holiday payment

Holiday payment is only payable with salaried pensions RPW/PRS or OPW/PSS. Holiday payments are not paid with self-employed pensions (RPZ/PRI and OPZ/PSI).

Payments are made annually in May but are not payable in the first year of pension grant. The annual amount needs to be converted to a monthly amount.

• Aanvulling/Aanvullende uitkeringen / Paiements supplémentaires/complémentaires - Supplement/additional payment

Payment is paid either monthly or annually with the main pension where the person (or widow/er) worked in a border country (the Netherlands, France, Germany etc.) while they were residents in Belgium. They obtain a pension from that country, but Belgium pays a supplement.

• Belgian annuities/allowances

The Belgian annuities are:

• Ouderdomsrente/Rente de viellesse (Old-age pension allowance)
• Weduwenrente/Rente de veuve (Survivor pension allowance)

Annuities are additional payment based on voluntary contributions made by the customer. They can be paid monthly or annually.

The widows (SUR) payment is made if the deceased partner made such contributions.

• Verwarmingstoelage/Allocation de chauffage - Heating allowance

Heating allowance is a supplementary payment to the main pension.

A flat rate is payable to eligible homeowners and non-homeowners.

• Civil Servants payment
• Pensioendienst voor de Overheidssector (PDOS)
• Service des Pensions du Secteur Public (SdPSP)/Centrale Dienst der Vaste Uitgaven-Pensioenen (CDVU)
• Service central des dépenses fixes-Pensions (SCDF)
• ORPSS (formally OSSOM) payment

The Belgian Office for Special Social Security Schemes (ORPSS) is a public social security institution responsible for pension paid for periods of employment in the Belgian Congo.

There are no exempt payments.

The Agreement includes embargo provisions (Article 27.2) but they are not used.

Arrears debts for customers and their partners are raised under s1228A Social Security Act 1991 and recovered via normal methods under the Act. See Comparable Foreign Payment (CFP) lump sum arrears.

Arrears periods are generally not provided by Belgium. Customers will generally receive a separate statement (Decompte/Afrekening) after the Notice of Grant (NOG).

A contravention debt may also occur if the customer does not advise of the grant of their Belgian payment within their notification period. See Foreign pension coding.

Life certificates are issued by Belgium to selected customers and may not be required each year. Certificates are in English.

Belgian Life Certificates can be certified by an officer of Services Australia.

For information on helping customers with life certificates, see Assisting customers to maintain an existing foreign pension.

Customers in Australia are sent notices at grant and will receive an annual statement in between January and March each year and when holiday payment is made in May.

Note:

• Belgian Notices of Grant (NOG) generally only advise the net rate
• Arrears periods are generally not provided by Belgium
• Customers will generally receive a separate statement Decompte/Afrekening) after the NOG