Arranging a sickness benefit for your employee

To arrange a sickness benefit, you will need to report your employee is ill by using the ‘Report an absence’ feature (‘Verzuimmelder’) on the employer portal. Use your EH3 level eHerkenning account to do this. Make sure you select ‘Ziekmelding’ (‘Report an illness’) and then fill in all the information required. Alternatively, if you are a Digipoort user, you can inform us of your employee’s illness through your own HR administration system, which is directly linked to our system.

Make sure you report your employee is ill on time. If you do not do this, you run the risk of receiving a fine of up to €455.

Your employee might qualify for a sickness benefit in the following situations:

• Your employee’s illness was caused by pregnancy or childbirth and they fell ill before their maternity leave started or after it ended. Report they are ill by the fourth day of illness.
• Your employee’s illness was caused by pregnancy and they became ill before the 2-week period began that marks the start of their maternity leave ('flexibiliseringsperiode'). Report they are ill within 6 weeks of the first day of illness.
• Your employee’s illness was caused by pregnancy and they became ill during the 2-week period that marks the start of their maternity leave. Report they are ill by the fourth day of illness.
• Your employee became ill because they donated an organ. Report they are ill within 6 weeks of the first day of illness.
• Your employee has a disability and is covered by the risk-free scheme for employers (‘no-riskpolis’). Report they are ill within 6 weeks of the first day of illness.
• Your employee is covered by a scheme that supports employers for hiring older individuals who were previously unemployed (‘compensatieregeling’). Report they are ill no later than 13 weeks and 4 days after the first day of illness.

Please note: In most of these situations, we will transfer the benefit payments directly to you. This means you will continue paying your employee’s salary in the same way you always have.

Your employee might be entitled to a sickness benefit once their contract ends. They might even be entitled to this if they have a casual contract. Make sure you report your employee is ill on their last day of employment.

You might have an employee who is not actually an employee, but is classed as such for tax purposes ('fictief dienstverband'). Examples of these types of employees include interns and home-based workers. Report this type of employee is ill by the fourth day of illness.

Please note: The benefit payments will be transferred directly to your employee if their contract has ended or if they do not have a contract with you.

You and your employee will receive a decision about the sickness benefit within 4 weeks of you reporting your employee’s illness. If your employee qualifies, we will transfer the payment directly to you every 4 weeks. You can then offset this benefit against the salary that you will continue to pay your employee for the period that they are ill.

Please note: If your employee is receiving a sickness benefit, please ensure that you report any changes in their return-to-work process to us.