Mandatory disability insurance for self-employed and freelancers 'not feasible'

An amended bill is coming to regulate mandatory disability insurance for self-employed people without staff (zzp'ers). The two main executors, the Tax Authority and the UWV, consider the government's plan to be too complex and therefore (almost) impossible to implement. Minister Eddy van Hijum wrote to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, that he will therefore not be able to submit the proposal to the lower house before the summer.

Self-employed entrepreneurs will soon have to pay part of their income towards a premium for the mandatory basic disability insurance (baz). In the event of prolonged incapacity to work, for example due to an accident, the self-employed will receive around 70 percent of their income after a certain period of time. The insurance will be compulsory for all self-employed people who make a profit from their own business.

"A compulsory insurance for the self-employed is no small ambition: it concerns an insurance for more than a million self-employed entrepreneurs that is suitable for this group. Regardless of the exact design, this puts considerable pressure on the already scarce capacity of executive bodies," Van Hijum wrote in his letter to Parliament.

"The chosen basis leads to a period of uncertainty about the insurance and premium obligation for the self-employed. Both organizations believe that the chosen basis “profit from business” entails too great a risk of refunds and additional payments", writes Van Hijum. The plan also requires too much capacity from the two executors, who have not only been struggling with implementation problems for some time, but also have to carry out recovery operations.

The tax authorities describe the plan as not feasible at all and therefore do not specify a possible implementation date. The UWV describes the proposal as “not feasible unless” and does not see the possibility of implementing the plan until January 1, 2030.

Van Hijum will therefore have to make “more or less far-reaching adjustments” to the proposal in order to achieve a “feasible, affordable and explainable insurance”. In order to take proper account of the objections and comments, the amended bill will not be submitted to the Tweede Kamer until the third quarter of 2025 at the earliest.

This will also have an impact on the Netherlands' access to funds from the European Union's Corona Recovery Fund. Compulsory insurance for the self-employed was one of the milestones that the Netherlands must meet. Although the Netherlands can conditionally apply to meet the milestone later, it cannot be ruled out that the Cabinet will lose money by delaying the proposal.