Carry your own risk sickness law

If you become self-insurer for the Sickness Benefits Act, you pay less premium. You carry out the prevention and absenteeism policy yourself, together with the occupational health and safety service or company doctor.

You yourself pay the Sickness Benefit if your employee gets sick (and if they are entitled to benefits), not UWV. You are also responsible for the reintegration of the sick employee. Even if they no longer work for you in the meantime. The sickness benefit amounts to 70% of the daily wage. If you are self-insurer, you have to pay this. You can calculate the amount of the benefit yourself or purchase this service from an organization to which you outsource the Sickness Benefits Act. For example, an administrative office. You will still be responsible for the implementation.

Paying less premium

If you are self-insured for the Sickness Benefits Act, you will pay a lower differentiated Whk (Work Resumption Rate) premium, because you do not have to pay the ZW flex premium portion.

But other costs

You must have in-house knowledge of the Sickness Benefits Act as an excess carrier. You also need to be able to handle your own absence administration, and review your contact for health and safety services. This may need to be expanded. You can compare the costs involved with the risk figures and premiums for your sector. Then you will have an idea of whether it is advantageous for you to become self-insurer for the Sickness Benefits Act. It is important to be well informed about this.

For whom do you become self-insurer of the sickness law?

You become self-insured for the Sickness Benefits Act only for:

• Employees with temporary employment with your organization, and whose employment ends during the illness period.
• Home workers and interns; people without regular employment contracts.
• Employees (who were insured) who become ill within 4 weeks of leaving your organization.

Sometimes the UWV does pay benefits, even if you are self-insured for the Sickness Benefits Act. This applies, for example, to:

• Employees who have a chronic or long-term illness or disability. For these employees, you do need proof that the no-risk policy applies to them. Then UWV will pay the benefit.
• Employees who were born before 08-07-1954, joined you from unemployment, and have received unemployment benefits for at least one year. They must also not have been employed for more than 5 years. These people are covered by the Compensation Scheme for Older Workers.
• Employees who are sick due to organ donation, pregnancy or childbirth.

Responsibilities and obligations

What should you arrange for your (former) employees for whom you bear the risk? That is the following:

• Keeping absence records and submitting sick and recovery reports to UWV. This is also important for the First Year Sickness Act assessment.
• Absenteeism counseling and reintegration to suitable work.
• Paying sick pay.
• Preparing decisions on the Sickness Act.

If you do not perform these tasks properly, UWV may take over the work from you. This is because UWV checks whether you have arranged everything properly. UWV will then charge you a fee. To avoid this, you can also purchase some of the tasks from UWV or an administrative office in advance.

Conditions of self-insurance under the sickness law

You apply for self-risk bearing for the Sickness Benefits Act at the Tax Office. You must then meet the following conditions:

• You did not cease to be self-insured ZW in the 3 years before the intended effective date.
• You must comply with health and safety requirements. You must make arrangements with your occupational health and safety service about your sick leave policy. This must be in order. You send these agreements to the Tax Office together with your application for self-insurance.

Large and small organizations can become self-insured. However, this does not apply to a branch or subsidiary. A company can only take on this as a whole.