You must report your employee's illness to us even though you will pay for their sickness benefit. You need to do this within 6 weeks after the last day of their contract or temporary contract if the following applies:

  • Your employee is not an actual employee but is classed as such for tax purposes ('fictief dienstverband'). 
  • Your former employee falls ill within 4 weeks of their contract ending.

If your employee returns to work, make sure you inform us of their recovery within 2 days. If you have not informed us of your employee's or former employee's illness, you can report both their illness and recovery to us at the same time.

You need to request a decision from us for each individual employee or former employee in the following situations:

  • You are seeking our approval to not pay out the sickness benefit.
  • You need us to confirm that the sickness benefit must now be paid out, even though this was previously not the case.
  • You need a decision regarding a change in the level or duration of the benefit.
  • You need a decision regarding an advance payment.

If your employee or former employee asks you to request a decision from us, you must do so.

When requesting a decision on the sickness benefit, you must include which decision you think you need from us, and why. We will inform your employee or former employee of our decision and their right to object.

We can assist you with carrying out your responsibilities as a self-insured employer. We offer the following services, for a fee:

If you have outsourced sickness benefit related tasks to other organisations, you can authorise them to request decisions or evaluations from us. To authorise them, complete the Authorisation form for self-insured employers for the sickness benefit (‘Machtigen door eigenrisicodrager Ziektewet’).

To cancel the authorisation, you will need to complete the Cancelling an authorisation as a self-insured employer (‘Intrekking machtiging eigenrisicodrager Ziektewet’).

As a self-insured employer, you need to have a clear policy regarding sick leave. Discuss these rules with your employee so they know what they have to do when they are ill. Make sure they know what support you will provide during their absence (‘verzuimbegeleiding’) and how you will help them return to work (‘re-integratie’).

If your employee or former employee violates the rules while receiving a sickness benefit, discuss this with them. If this does not resolve the situation, you can impose a penalty (‘maatregel’) such as temporarily reducing their benefit. Before doing this, you must request a decision from us.

We have to make sure that you correctly carry out your responsibilities as a self-insured employer. This is why we inspect your workplace and send you written questions about your sickness records (‘verzuimadministratie’). We will also ask for information about certain sickness cases (‘ziekmeldingen’) to compare with our records.

We check whether your sick leave policy complies with the 2020 Sickness Benefit Regulations and Compliance (‘Controlevoorschriften Ziektewet 2020’) and whether you are following the policy. If another organisation handles your sickness benefit tasks, we will do our checks there.

After our checks, we will send you our report. If this report meets our standards, the next inspection will be in 2 years. If improvements are required, you need to tell us how you will achieve this. We will set a deadline and hold an inspection at a later date.

Please note: If no improvements are made we will have to intervene and take over, for a fee.

If we pay the sickness benefit for your employee or former employee directly to you, you need to report any changes in their circumstances to us.

If you have overpaid your employee or former employee, we can arrange to refund you. To do so, fill in the request the Repayment of a sickness benefit overpayment form (‘Verzoeken terugbetaling te veel betaalde Ziektewet-uitkering’).

If your employee or former employee has been ill for almost 1 year, we will do a first-year evaluation (‘Eerstejaars Ziektewet-beoordeling’) to find out if they are still eligible for the sickness benefit. We will send a questionnaire to you, to your occupational health physician (‘bedrijfsarts’) or occupational health and safety service (‘arbodienst’), and to your employee or former employee. 

The assessment starts from the 44th week of illness. If necessary, your employee or former employee will see the UWV physician (‘verzekeringsarts’) and often the occupational disability employment counsellor (‘arbeidsdeskundige’) too. 

You and your employee or former employee will receive our decision in the 52nd week of illness. We will let you know if you can stop paying the sickness benefit, or if you must continue paying it for a maximum of 1 more year.

If your occupational health physician sees an improvement in your employee’s or former employee’s health after the first-year evaluation, you can request a second-year sickness evaluation to determine any potential increase in work capacity (‘Toetsing verbetering belastbaarheid tijdens het tweede ziektejaar’).

If your occupational health physician or occupational health and safety service stops supporting your employee during their absence and the return-to-work process (re-integratietraject), you must report this to us and the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (‘Belastingdienst’). Send a letter to the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration and email us at ERDWZControleteam@uwv.nl.

Any changes to your company structure must be reported to us right away as it may affect your status as a self-insured employer.

If another company takes over your company, they must pay the sickness benefit to the employees you were responsible for. If another company only takes over part of your company, you remain responsible for paying the sickness benefit.

You can decide to stop being a self-insured employer, or it may end automatically. In both cases, you will remain responsible for the benefit run-off liability (‘uitlooprisico’). This means that you remain responsible for the ongoing sickness benefits of your employees and former employees.

To do so, you must inform the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration by completing the Stopping as a self-insured employer for the sickness benefit form (‘Beëindiging Eigenrisicodragerschap voor de ZW’).

You will automatically cease to be a self-insured employer, and we will start handling the payments and return-to-work plans, if any of the following occur:

  • You are declared bankrupt. 
  • You are in a personal debt restructuring scheme (‘Wet schuldsaneringsregeling natuurlijke personen’). 
  • You are no longer an employer.
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