State

Workers who involuntary became partially or fully unemployed.

- Workers who are not ensured for unemployment (usually, if you have a contract and haven’t reached retirement age, you automatically are)

- Workers who lose only 5 working hours per week or less

- Workers who are not immediately available for paid employment

- Workers who have not worked a minimum of 26 week in the 36 weeks prior to losing their employment

- Workers who became unemployed by their own doing, i.e. quit

NOTE: Workers HAVE TO be registered at the UWV as seeking employment.

The wages in the 12 months before a worker became unemployed, determines the amount of their unemployment benefit. In the first two months the benefit is 75% of that wage. After that, beneficiaries will receive 70%.

Workers are entitled to a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 38 months of unemployment benefits. How long workers are entitled to unemployment benefits depends on their employment history and the moment they became unemployed. As of January 2016, the maximum duration of unemployment benefits will gradually drop to 24 months in 2019.

The benefit will stop if:

- The beneficiary finds a new job

- If the beneficiary entitled to a pension (AOW).

- When the beneficiary dies.

It is advisable to claim unemployment benefits 2 weeks before your last working day. You apply online. Information that is requested is the last paycheck, your last contract, your bank account number. Most of the information will already be available, since the claim procedure is linked to your DigID; a digital identity used on government and healthcare websites.

Available online via www.werk.nl after logging in.

UWV

Werkeloosheidswet BWBR0004045