The Invalidity Insurance Act (WAO)

The WAO will be replaced as at 1 January 2006 by the Work and Income According to Working Capacity Act. It consists of a regulation for completely and permanently incapacitated persons (IVA) and a regulation for partially incapacitated persons (WGA).

Employees who are entirely incapacitated and have no chance of recovery will be eligible for benefit of 70 percent of their last wages. Employees who are entirely incapacitated and have a small chance of recovery will also receive benefit of 70 percent of their last wages. They will be re-evaluated every year for the first five years to determine whether they are recovering.

Partially incapacitated persons have the right to assistance in finding work again plus an addition to their wages, whereby their income rises the more they work.
Employers and employees are given a greater responsibility to remain in work.
The new law contains financial incentives and instruments to promote the resumption of work. From 1 October 2004, incapacitated persons younger than 50 years of age will be evaluated according to new, stricter evaluation requirements. For persons over 50 years of age, the old regulations will continue to apply.

As an incapacitated person you can be re-evaluated according to stricter employment criteria. The social insurance administration body (UWV) will focus more on what you are still capable of, despite your handicap. The employment analyst will still have to indicate three tasks you can fulfil. For each position, there will have to be at least three vacancies in the computer system of the job analyst, instead of the current ten. If you were working part time, you will now also be evaluated for full-time jobs. When indicating tasks you can still fulfil, the lack of a generally common ability cannot constitute an obstacle, as long as this ability can be learned within a reasonable period (six months). In concrete terms, this refers to spoken knowledge of a language and basic use of a computer.

If you are re-evaluated according to the stricter criteria, this can have consequences for your benefits. If you are declared partially fit to work, your benefits will be reduced. If you are declared completely fit to work but cannot find any work, you can apply for unemployment benefit and, if necessary, IOAW (a minimum benefit). Under the IOAW (Law on income for older and partially incapacitated unemployed persons), the income of your partner is taken into account but any capital is not.

Are you not eligible for unemployment benefit or is your unemployment benefit nearing the end? Then you will receive an allowance for a maximum of six months after the incapacity benefit has been reduced or stopped, provided you make an effort to find work. Instead of unemployment benefit, you will receive a similar benefit with a maximum duration of six months. This transitional regulation will be implemented by the UWV and will run until 1 January 2009.

Source: European Union
© European Communities, 1995-2006
Reproduction is authorised.

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