Self-insured employers and the unemployment benefit

As a self-insured employer under the Dutch Unemployment Act, you will be responsible for paying your employees an unemployment benefit if one of them loses their job. This also means you will not be required to pay any employer contributions to the unemployment fund (‘WW-premie’).

We will pay the unemployment benefit directly to your employee and you will receive an invoice from us on, or around, the 18th of each month. Your national insurance contribution (‘werkgeverspremie’) will be added to the invoice amount.

You will only be invoiced for an unemployment benefit in the following situations:

• Your employee is entitled to receive an unemployment benefit and you are the employee’s last employer.
• Your former employee was dismissed or made redundant by their most recent employer and worked less than 26 weeks in the last 36 weeks (‘wekeneis’).
• Your former employee was dismissed or made redundant by their most recent employer, who is also an employer in the public sector and education. Your former employee worked 26 weeks in the last 36 weeks, but worked fewer hours for their most recent employer than for you. The most recent employer will cover the unemployment benefit for the hours the employee worked there. You will cover the unemployment benefit for the remaining hours.

You will not need to pay your employee an unemployment benefit if they had a work experience contract (‘werkervaringsovereenkomst’) while working for you or if they fall under the Supported Employment Act (‘Wet sociale werkvoorziening’).

It is your job to help unemployed former employees return to work (‘re-integratie’). This means you must decide whether your former employee needs help in returning to work, through, for example, training or a coaching plan. If your former employee is receiving an occupational disability benefit (‘arbeidsongeschiktheidsuitkering’), the return-to-work process will be managed by us instead of you.

While receiving support to return to work, employees will sometimes need to be partially or fully freed from 1 or more of the unemployment benefit obligations. We will assess whether an employee qualifies for such an exemption or not. To apply for an exemption, use the form ‘Former employer’s return-to-work recommendation’ (‘Advies van ex-werkgever over re-integratie’). 

Former employees who are receiving return-to-work support will be expected to actively participate in, and fully cooperate with, this process. If you find your former employee is not doing this, you can let us know by completing the form ‘Report unacceptable behaviour during the return-to-work plan’ (‘Melden verwijtbaar gedrag tijdens re-integratietraject’).

You can access all information related to the financial aspects of the unemployment benefit and your employee’s return-to-work process in the employer portal (‘werkgeversportaal’). To log in to the employer portal, you will need an EH3 level eHerkenning account.