Designing fair and workoriented unemployment benefits : the case of Belgium

This note focuses on the design of fair and work-oriented unemployment benefits, with a specific focus on Belgium, a country in which the design of the unemployment benefits system has become the subject of an intense policy debate in recent years. After taking stock of the most recent literature and international policy practices, the note describes the main features of the Belgian unemployment benefit system and proposes a number of policy recommendations that can help to make the current unemployment benefit system more work-oriented and fair across all groups of unemployed.