Family Support in Flanders: 18.53 million subsidized hours for 2026

The Flemish Minister for Welfare and the Fight Against Poverty, C. Gennez, established by ministerial decree on September 17, 2026, the quotas of subsidizable family assistance hours for approved services for the 2026 working year. Published in the Belgian Official Gazette No. 240 of October 21, 2026 (p. 56845) under reference C − 2026/007684, the text allocates 18,530,195 hours among 102 approved services. The decree takes effect on January 1, 2026.

The mechanism is based on the decree on residential care of February 15, 2019 (Articles 55, § 1, and 56) and on Annex 2 of the Flemish Government decree of June 28, 2019, regarding the programming, accreditation conditions, and subsidy regime for residential care structures. The Finance Inspection issued its opinion on August 5, 2026. On the same day, a related decree (C − 2026/007661, of July 15, 2026) established the granting conditions applicable to the 2026 financial year, derogating from the ministerial decree of February 4, 2021.

A floor of 15,390 hours per service

The calculation rules applicable in 2026 are as follows:

• maintenance of the quota allocated in 2025 for the bilingual territory of Brussels-Capital;
• guaranteed floor of 15,390 hours at the service level and 1,539 hours at the regional city level;
• application, per regional city, of the highest achievement rate from 2023 or 2024 to the quota allocated in 2025;
• capping: the total quota of a service cannot exceed that which was allocated to it in 2025;
• rejection of reasoned requests for voluntary reduction submitted in 2025, unless the requested quota is lower than the calculation result;
• possibility to reduce the final tranche of the balance referred to in Article 68 of Annex 2, in proportion to any exceeding of the total available budget.

The heavyweights of the private sector

The 32 approved private services share 16,056,168 hours. The main quotas are as follows:

• Familiehulp (No. 2): 6,736,151 hours;
• i-mens (No. 202): 3,864,325 hours;
• Ferm Thuiszorg (No. 62): 1,462,300 hours;
• Familiezorg West-Vlaanderen (No. 3): 1,301,777 hours;
• Familiezorg (No. 5): 1,128,356 hours;
• Gezinszorg Villers (No. 8): 391,386 hours;
• Onafhankelijke Thuiszorg Verenigingen (No. 302): 245,091 hours;
• Helan Thuiszorg (No. 294): 161,772 hours.

About twenty small private services are set exactly at the floor of 15,390 hours, including Trixxo Thuiszorg, Envia Waas, Envia Dender, Salvator Gezinszorg, and Gezinszorg de Hoeksteen.

Public services and OCMWs

The 70 approved public services — essentially OCMWs (Public Centres for Social Welfare) and municipal care structures — total 2,474,027 hours. The most endowed are:

• Zorgbedrijf OCMW Antwerpen (no. 146): 269,545 hours;
• Welzijnszorg Kempen (no. 338): 213,875 hours;
• Welzijnskoepel West-Brabant (no. 339): 122,931 hours;
• Zorgbedrijf Meetjesland (no. 358): 104,497 hours;
• Welzijnsregio Noord-Limburg (no. 335): 101,894 hours;
• Zorgpunt Waasland (no. 362): 100,551 hours;
• Zorgbedrijf Leuven (no. 34): 83,956 hours;
• OCMW Aalst (no. 92): 56,454 hours.

Fourteen regional cities and Brussels

The annex to the decree allocates the quotas among the regional cities defined by the decree of May 23, 2003, regarding the division into care regions, as well as the bilingual territory of Brussels-Capital. The largest envelopes go to Ghent (2,659,832 hours), Antwerp (2,327,650), Hasselt (1,839,075), Leuven (1,549,690), and Turnhout (1,420,017); the smallest to Ostend (591,253) and the bilingual territory of Brussels-Capital (221,502).

A twin decree of the same day (C − 2026/007688) regulates cleaning assistance, small works assistance, and care assistance: 2,690.4 full-time equivalents of logistics personnel and 49.5 full-time equivalents of target group workers for the private sector, compared to 141.71 and 32.14 for the public sector.

For the CPAS (social welfare centers), mutual insurance funds, and local services, these figures constitute the subsidized billing ceiling for the year: no service may exceed its 2025 quota, and the budgetary clause of Article 3 allows for a reduction of the final balance installment if the overall envelope is exceeded. Hours actually worked by dual-learning students are now integrated into the calculation of subsidized hours, which expands the recognized base for services that train learners.

Source: Belgian Official Gazette no. 240 of October 21, 2026, ministerial decree of September 17, 2026, C − 2026/007684, p. 56845.