Support Structures for Employment Self-Creation (SAACE)

Are you a jobseeker? Would you like to become self-employed? Set up your own company? Or take over an existing business? If so, under certain conditions, you can receive support from a SAACE while maintaining your unemployment rights. 

SAACE.chapo.jpeg (Businessman representing company helps (supports) customer (client) to overcome obstacle. Problem-solving with smart and simple solutions.)
The issue is managed by our colleagues at SPW Employment and Training.

Who can benefit from a SAACE?

SAACEs were designed to support jobseekers, while maintaining their entitlement to unemployment benefits. They are an opportunity to create your own job, at lower risk. 

What do SAACEs do? 

SAACEs offer personalised educational, legal and financial support to:

  • Set up a project: free support for up to 24 months;
  • Test a project before taking the plunge;
  • Obtain financing;
  • Receive legal protection: the SAACE hosts the business to ensure it is economically viable.

As a jobseeker, all these services are free of charge.

Which SAACEs are recognised? What are the conditions? 

Find out more on the SPW Employment and Training website

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Inspection: are you compliant ?

Inspections can be carried out at any time in the field. Their aim is to check compliance with current regulations, licensing requirements and the conditions for granting any financial aid provided by the Walloon Region and/or co-financed by European funds. These inspections aim to encourage compliance with the rules and sanction irregularities, fraud and certain forms of operation. 

Inspections can be triggered in a number of situations: on the initiative of the authorities, following a complaint or report, or at the request of the Labour Prosecutor the King's Public Prosecutor.

The inspectors in charge of inspections have several powers, including conducting investigations, drawing up Pro Justitia, entering workplaces or, with authorisation, inhabited areas, checking identities, searching for, examining and copying data media, making image-based observations, conducting hearings, and seizing and sealing goods. 

They can carry out these inspections unannounced, or announce them in advance. It is therefore important to always be ready to ensure that an inspection can run smoothly.

Legal framework: The work of the Inspection Services is governed by the Decree on Economic, Employment and Research Inspection, and the Decree on Vocational Training and Retraining. 

How to prepare for an inspection ?

You can be inspected at any time, whether announced or unannounced. To be ready for an inspection with peace of mind, it is essential that you comply with the legislation governing your business.

The best course of action, even before an inspection is carried out, is to keep the documents proving compliance with the regulations governing your activities (licences, cards, certifications, etc.) close at hand. Inspections are based on tangible evidence, not mere declarations. It is therefore important to provide the inspector with all the documents and information requested, in full transparency.

Collaboration is essential for effective, constructive inspections. Welcome the inspector and provide give them the help they need to accomplish their mission.

What to do after the inspection ?

If the inspection went well, congratulations! Keep up the momentum to maintain your compliance. However, if you have failed to take the necessary steps, or neglected certain legal obligations, you may be subject to sanctions. Inspections may reveal irregularities or infringements, varying in seriousness from minor irregularities due to ignorance of the law to outright fraud.

Depending on the situation, the risks involved are:

  • a simple warning, with the obligation to put things right,
  • a proposal to withdraw or recover all or part of the subsidy, approval or authorisation,
  • a statement of offences, which may result in penal or administrative sanctions.

These sanctions may have consequences for your business. It is therefore important to regularise your situation as soon as possible to avoid facing this problem.