Entitlement to an unemployment benefit if you are self-employed
If you are self-employed, you might still qualify for an unemployment benefit. However, we will need to look carefully at the situation before you became unemployed to see whether this is the case.
If you were employed before becoming self-employed
Starting your own business can sometimes be challenging and you might find yourself in a situation where, after a few months of self-employment, your business is not going as well as you had hoped. In such a situation, you might still be entitled to an unemployment benefit. However, this will depend on the following factors:
- how long you would have been entitled to an unemployment benefit for if you had not become self-employed
- how long you have had your own business for
- whether you completely shut down your business
- whether you are responsible for your own unemployment
If you resigned from your job or are in way responsible for being out of work, you will generally not be entitled to an unemployment benefit.
If your unemployment benefit stopped due to your income from self-employment
You might be in a position where your unemployment benefit ended because your assumed income (‘fictief inkomen’) was higher than 87.5% of your average monthly unemployment benefit income (‘WW-maandloon’). If this applies to you and you have since completely shut down your business, you might be entitled to receive an unemployment benefit again.
Keep in mind that you can only reclaim your unemployment benefit if you apply within the required time frame:
- If you were entitled to an unemployment benefit for 18 months or less, you should apply within 18 months of starting self-employment.
- If you were entitled to an unemployment benefit for more than 18 months, you have a longer period to apply, namely the amount of time you were entitled to the benefit for.
In both cases, the period to apply begins from the moment you started working as a self-employed person.
If you were self-employed alongside being in paid employment
It might be that you were self-employed at the same time as you had a job. If you lose your job, you could be entitled to receive an unemployment benefit based on the number of hours you were in paid employment.
If you would like more information about self-employment and the unemployment benefit, you can contact us via the UWV employee helpline.