The Sickness Benefits Act provides an income for employees who fall ill but have no employer to continue paying their wages. Where there is an employer, that employer pays: up to two years of continued wage payment is the rule. The Sickness Benefits Act is the safety net for the situations in which that rule does not apply, and it is administered by the UWV.
Who falls under the Act?
The main groups are employees whose fixed-term contract ends while they are ill, agency workers whose assignment ends because of the agency clause, employees who fall ill within four weeks of the end of their employment, and people receiving unemployment benefit who become unable to work.
Two further categories are covered irrespective of an employer: incapacity connected with pregnancy or childbirth, and incapacity following organ donation. Employees with a recognised occupational disability may also fall under the Act through the no-risk policy, which is intended to remove the financial disincentive to hiring them.
How much is paid?
The benefit is normally seventy per cent of the daily wage, subject to the statutory maximum daily wage. For incapacity connected with pregnancy or childbirth, and for incapacity following organ donation, the benefit is one hundred per cent of the daily wage. That difference matters in practice: incapacity that arises after childbirth and is connected to the pregnancy attracts full payment, and the connection is a medical question that is worth having recorded properly.
Obligations while receiving benefit
The Act imposes reintegration duties comparable to those under an employment relationship. You must report your incapacity in time, be available for assessment, follow reasonable instructions aimed at recovery, and cooperate with a plan of action. Benefit can be reduced or refused where those duties are not met.
After a year the UWV assesses whether you are able to earn at least sixty-five per cent of your previous income in generally accepted work. If you are, the entitlement ends; if you are not, it continues, and after two years the question becomes one of long-term incapacity benefit.
What employers should know
Employers are not simply out of the picture. Larger employers can be made to bear the cost of Sickness Benefits Act payments to former employees through differentiated contributions, and employers may also choose to bear the risk themselves. That makes how a fixed-term contract ends while someone is ill a financial question as well as a legal one, and it is a reason to take advice before deciding not to renew.
If a decision goes against you
A refusal, a reduction or an end to the benefit is an administrative decision. An objection can be lodged with the UWV within six weeks, and an appeal to the administrative court follows if the objection fails. The medical assessment underlying the decision can be challenged, and doing so requires medical information rather than argument alone – which is why gathering it early matters.
Advice
We advise employees on entitlement and on objections against UWV decisions, and employers on the cost consequences of ending a contract during illness. Please contact Law & More.
