Paid citizen service to compensate young people for community work

An optional programme for citizen service would compensate young people for work in the community, allowing them to earn €550 a month.The programme would be available to about 1,000 young people around Belgium, letting them earn money while retaining their social rights, such as family allowances.About €7.5 million has been set aside by the federal government to fund the programme, which deputy prime minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne (PS) called a “great victory”.“A few days ago, 300 young people formed a human chain to hand me 315 communal charters calling for the introduction of a legal status for citizen service,” the minister said. “It was o…