How does the Eligibility for Permanent Incapacity Benefit (Restrictions) Act work?

Under the Eligibility for Permanent Incapacity Benefit (Restrictions) Act, you, as an employer, have to ensure together with your employee and your occupational health and safety service that your sick employee is able to return to work as soon and responsibly as possible. You have an active role in the rehabilitation of your employee and the employee is obliged to cooperate with you. As an employer, how do you ensure that you comply with the Eligibility for Permanent Incapacity Benefit (Restrictions) Act? (in Dutch: Wet verbetering poortwachter)

Step-by-step plan

A sick employee generally wants to return to work as soon as possible. And as an employer, you want the same of course. Under the Eligibility for Permanent Incapacity Benefit (Restrictions) Act, your employee and you must take a number of steps to this end together with the occupational health and safety service.

1. Problem analysis

No later than six weeks after your employee has reported sick and the employer has informed the occupational health and safety service, the company doctor will examine the situation. They draw up a problem analysis and give directional advice. This allows you – together with your employee – to make arrangements about the work that the employee is able to perform.

2. Action plan

Based on the advice of the company doctor, you and your employee will draw up an Action Plan. You make arrangements about the goal of the rehabilitation and which activities are best suited to achieve this goal. The employee actively participates in the implementation of the plan and the employer monitors its progress. You also provide proper guidance.

3. Progress interviews

As the Action Plan is a snapshot, you will discuss progress at least every six weeks. The company doctor also has regular contact with the employee. You always decide together with the employee what the next step will be. If necessary, you can adjust the Action Plan. It may be that the company doctor advises you to modify the Action Plan.

4. UWV and WIA

At the end of the first year of absence, you are obliged under the Eligibility for Permanent Incapacity Benefit (Restrictions) Act to reassess the progress of rehabilitation and possibly make new arrangements. Towards the end of the second year, you must provide a rehabilitation report in which the company doctor, employer and employee describe their views on the rehabilitation. On the basis of the rehabilitation report, UWV assesses whether the employer and the employee have done everything in their power to prevent the employee from having to apply for WIA benefit.

Week-to-week overview

The key steps are described above. If you want to know exactly what you need to arrange from week to week, please read this in-depth article.