Sources and method
Where Trakko’s figures come from, how we check them, what has changed, and how to reuse them.
Checked on · Trakko rules: version 10
The figures and their sources
Each row gives a figure as the app applies it, the official page that sets it and the date we last checked it.
Each figure explained, with the cases it applies to, one question at a time: Guides 2026: student jobs, flexi-jobs in Belgium
How Trakko checks
- Every Monday, a program re-reads the 115 pages we follow, nearly all of them official: NSSO and Student@work, FPS Employment, NIHDI, Famiris, Famiwal, Groeipakket, Ostbelgien Familie, the Federal Pensions Service, the National Employment Office. It compares their figures with those of the last check.
- As soon as a figure appears or disappears on one of them, an alert opens: a person reads the official page and decides whether the rule has changed.
- Every two weeks, an AI-assisted review also looks for what does not show on those pages yet (Belgian Official Journal, programme laws, indexations) and prepares the corrections. A person reviews them before anything is published.
- Sites that block programs, such as those of FPS Finance and the Belgian Official Journal, are re-read by hand at every programme law and every indexation.
- An automated test compares each figure published here with the one the app uses; it runs every time a rule changes.
- When a rule changes, the app’s rules move to a new version, which also goes out to apps already installed, and the site’s pages are corrected and re-dated.
When the rules move
- 1 January
- Indexation of tax amounts, the flexi-job ceiling and pensioners’ ceilings; the 650 h start again from zero. Trakko’s 2027 rules are prepared: their amounts go in as soon as they are officially published.
- Every quarter
- Child benefit hours in Brussels, Wallonia and the German-speaking Community; health insurance income ceiling for a partner’s dependant.
- Pivot index
- Minimum wage, pay scales and flexi minimum indexed by 2%.
- 1 July, 1 September
- Minimum and maximum flexi-job pay in hospitality; start of the academic year.
Trakko is not an official source. For an answer you can rely on, the reference remains Student@work for your student hours and mycareer.be for the rest of your career; if in doubt, ask the body quoted. Student@work · mycareer.be
Rules changelog
Every version of Trakko’s rules, with what changed. A new version can go out to apps already installed, without waiting for a store update.
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Version 10 ·
Extras, Article 17, age 15 and non-EU: the gauges come to the app
- Hospitality extras: a job type of their own, with the 50-day gauge; contributions are computed on the flat-rate base (a Dimona counts at least 2 hours), then 33.31% withholding tax.
- Article 17: a job type of its own (sports activity as an option), with no contributions and no sector premiums, and a gauge of the hours of the year and of the quarter.
- At 15, still in compulsory full-time schooling: the light-work limits (2 h per school day, 12 h per school week, 14 h of rest, no Sunday or public holiday, nothing between 8 pm and 6 am).
- Non-EU students with “limited” access to the labour market: the 20-hours-a-week gauge, outside the school holidays entered in the profile.
- 2027 rules prepared: 650 h carried over, 156 days per career year for a pension starting in 2027; indexed amounts go in as soon as they are officially published.
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Version 9 ·
Full legal audit, in six parts, against the official sources
- Students: beyond 650 h, contributions now take the work bonus into account (often zero on low pay); hours are rounded as the NSSO does, per employer and per quarter.
- Flexi-jobs and pensioners: the Federal Pensions Service earnings ceilings in early retirement without a 45-year career (€10,432 gross a year, flexi included, of which €8,121 of flexi pay) and for a survivor’s pension; care roles open to flexi-jobs with the required qualification; cleaning reserved for pensioners from 1 October 2026.
- Tax: tax-free allowance of €11,550 (law of 15 July 2026), so €16,500 taxable gross with no income tax; flexi income, tips and cash counted for staying a dependant.
- Child benefit: no free summer in Wallonia; in Brussels, a free summer only if studies continue; in Flanders, 80 h a month from the month after turning 18; entitlement until 25 everywhere.
- Working time and sectors: no more automatic Sunday or public holiday premium without a collective agreement; night work no longer banned in principle (law of 18 May 2026); wages due by the 4th working day, the 7th only if the work rules say so.
- Other statuses: hospitality extras (50 days a year, at most 2 days in a row with the same employer, contributions on a flat-rate base, 33.31% withholding tax), Article 17 (300 h a year, 450 h in sport, 190 h for a student, quarterly ceilings), non-EU students with “limited” access to the labour market (20 h a week during the school year), warning under 15.
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Version 8 ·
- Overtime: premium beyond 40 h a week (not 38); youth pay scale in hospitality; 48 h of weekly rest under 18.
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Version 7 ·
- Rules re-checked: youth pay scale (collective agreement no. 50/4); health insurance with no income condition under 25; child benefit conditions from 1 September of the year of turning 18; 175 h per quarter in the German-speaking Community; hospitality flexi pay capped at €21 an hour before holiday pay.
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Versions 3 to 6 ·
- First 2026 rules, from the desk research of 10 September 2026.
Open data
The figures in the table are free to reuse under the CC BY 4.0 licence: you may copy, adapt and publish them, commercially too, crediting “Trakko (trakko.be)” and the date they were checked. One figure per row, in French, Dutch, English and German, with its official source.
- regles-2026.csv Spreadsheet (CSV, UTF-8)
- regles-2026.json JSON, with the keys of the app’s rules
- CC BY 4.0 licence
Each row also has a stable address, for example: trakko.be/en/sources#contingent-etudiant