To qualify for the WIA benefit, you will need to meet the following criteria:
- You are unable to work or can only work limited hours due to your illness or occupational disability.
- You are unable to earn more than 65% of your previous salary because of your illness or occupational disability.
Keep in mind you will not qualify for a WIA benefit if any of the following situations apply to you:
- You are already receiving a WAO benefit.
- You are self-employed and have not taken out voluntary income protection coverage (‘vrijwillige verzekering’) with us.
- You are moving to a country that does not have a reciprocal social security agreement with the Netherlands (‘niet-verdragsland’).
If you are still unfit for work after 88 weeks, you will receive a letter from us with instructions on how to apply for the WIA benefit. You can start the application process as soon as you have received this letter. The letter will also specify which date you need to submit your application by.
To apply for a WIA benefit, complete the WIA application form (‘Aanvragen WIA-uitkering’). You will need a DigiD account to do this.
Make sure you have the following close to hand when completing the form:
- the date you first became unfit for work
- the names and contact details of any employers you worked for in the past 5 years
- the names and dates of any courses or study programmes you completed
- your citizen service number (‘BSN’)
As part of your application, you will need to send us your medical report from the occupational health physician (‘bedrijfsarts’) and your return-to-work report. The return-to work report must include the following documents:
- the evaluation (‘probleemanalyse’) by the occupational health physician
- the action plan (‘plan van aanpak’) for your return to work
- the first-year evaluation (‘eerstejaars evaluatie’) of your progress
- a recent assessment by an occupational health physician or an occupational health and safety service (‘arbodienst’)
- the final evaluation (‘eindevaluatie') drawn up by you and your employer
Please note: If you are receiving a sickness benefit, you will not need to send us your medical report or the return-to-work report. Your completed application form will be enough.
Please send us your medical report separately by post. Mark the envelope as ‘private and confidential’ by writing ‘Medisch geheim’ on it. Then send it to the following address:
UWV
Postbus 69254
1060 CH Amsterdam
Your occupational health physician might determine early in your illness that a full recovery, allowing you to return to work, is not possible. If this is the case, you will be able to submit an early application for the WIA.
To start the early application process, complete the online WIA application form. This should be done no sooner than 3 weeks after your illness began and no later than 68 weeks after you first became unfit for work. The only additional document required along with your application is the ‘statement of fitness for work’ (‘verklaring bedrijfsarts’), which must be filled out by your occupational health physician.
Keep in mind you will not be able to submit an early application more than once.
We will confirm we have received your application within 2 weeks of you sending it. In general, our aim is to give you a decision on your application within 8 weeks. However, we are currently receiving such a high volume of applications, that meeting this deadline has become challenging. If we are unable to issue a decision on time, we will call you 2 weeks before your benefit was supposed to start to discuss the option of receiving an advance payment.