Netherlands: Simplified Long-term Sickness Benefit Assessment for Employees Over 60 Continues
As of September 1, 2025, the UWV reintroduces the ‘Simplified WIA assessments’ for people aged 60 and over. This scheme makes the application process for WIA benefits easier and quicker. Read this article for more information on the definition of WIA benefits, the details of the simplified application process, and the reason behind the implementation.
Legal framework for WIA benefits
When an employee falls ill, the employee remains employed with the employer and enjoys continued payment of wages by the employer for a period 2 years. WIA benefits (WIA is a Dutch abbreviation for the Work and Income (Capacity for Work) Act) are intended for employees who, after two years of illness, are still unable to perform their work in full or in part. Entitlement to a WIA benefits is assessed by the Dutch Labour Bureau (in Dutch: UWV). The UWV examines the health of the employee and what they are still capable of doing in terms of work. This is then compared to what the employee was able to do to before becoming sick, which leads to a disability percentage. This disability percentage determines whether the employee can receive WIA benefits and which type of benefit.
The Simplified WIA assessment
The UWV is currently dealing with capacity problems. The influx of WIA applications is too great for the employees of the UWV who are responsible for the WIA assessment. As a result, the UWV has significant backlogs. In principle, the UWV’s decision period for WIA applications is eight weeks. However, this deadline is often not met, leading to great uncertainty for sick employees. Therefore, the UWV introduced the simplified WIA assessment, which is meant to reduce the backlog at the UWV. It is expected that this will enable approximately 10,000 additional people to be assessed each year.
The Simplified WIA application process was already in force since 1 October 2022 until 31 December 2024. However, due to the unresolved backlog issues as mentioned above, the government has recently decided to install the simplified WIA assessment again per 1 September 2025. The simplified application process means that only an occupational expert is used in a WIA claim assessment of sick employees over the age of 60, instead of both an occupational expert and an insurance doctor.
It is not mandatory to use the simplified WIA application process. The employer and employee decide together whether to choose this route. The simplified WIA application process will be in force until 31 August 2027.
Key Points for HR
Discuss with employees who are 60 years of age or older and have a long-term illness whether they want to make use of this simplified WIA assessment. This will prevent delays and allow employers to make the most of the potential cost savings.
