The Public Centre for Social Welfare is a public institution that exists in each of the 581 municipalities of Belgium. Every citizen of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

has the right to social assistance and social integration. The term is a translation of the (OCMW), (CPAS) and (ÖSHZ). Examples of social services provided by the OCMW/CPAS are financial help, medical help, housing and legal advice. Those who do not have sufficient means to live on receive a minimum income (, ). Each municipality has, to complement the municipal council, a separate OCMW/CPAS council, appointed by the municipal council, not directly elected, except in the

municipalities with language facilities There are 27 municipalities with language facilities ( nl, faciliteitengemeenten; french: communes à facilités; german: Fazilitäten-Gemeinden) in Belgium which must offer linguistic services to residents in Dutch, French, or German in additi ...

Voeren Voeren (; ) is a Flemish Dutch-speaking municipality with facilities for the French-speaking minority, located in the Belgian province of Limburg. Bordering the Netherlands to the north and the Wallonia region's Liège Province () to the sou ...

Comines-Warneton Comines-Warneton (; nl, Komen-Waasten, ; pcd, Comène-Warneuton; vls, Koomn-Woastn; wa, Cômene-Varneton) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On January 1, 2006, it had a total population of 17 ...

and the six of the

Brussels Periphery The Brussels Periphery (, i.e. the "Brussels Rim", or ''Vlaamse Rand'', i.e. the "Flemish Rim", or just ''De Rand'', "the Rim"; ) refers to 19 Flemish municipalities that encircle the Brussels-Capital Region. The Brussels Region is an enclave of ...

. The council is composed of 9 to 15 members depending on the population of the municipality. The fact that OCMW/CPAS is a separate institution from the municipalities is historical. In other countries, such social services are given by the municipalities themselves. The three Belgian regions (Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia) are responsible for most local government matters. The Flemish Government plans to abolish its OCMW and integrate them into their respective municipalities by 1 January 2019.

References

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OCMW
belgium.be Medical and health organisations based in Belgium Local government in Belgium Social security in Belgium {{Belgium-stub

See also

References