WIA insurance

When an employee becomes disabled, it can mean a significant drop in income. As an employer, you are obliged to continue paying the employee's wages for the first two years. But what if the employee is still unable to work (fully) after two years? In that case, the employee will receive WIA benefits through the UWV. As an employer, you can take out WIA insurance for your employees. WIA insurance is a supplement to the WIA benefit that your employee will receive if he or she is unfit for work. At Alpina.nl we will tell you more about WIA insurance.

What is WIA?

WIA stands for Work and Income (Ability to Work) Act. This is the law for occupational disability. As soon as your employee becomes incapacitated for more than 2 years, the employer's mandatory continued payment of wages stops. In that case your employee falls under the WIA. He will then receive a WIA benefit from the UWV. The WIA consists of two types of benefit: the WGA (WorkForces Partially Disabled Persons) and the IVA (Income Provision Fully Disabled Persons). The employee receives a WGA benefit if he is more than 35% incapacitated for work and an IVA benefit if he is fully and permanently incapacitated for work.

What is WIA insurance?

If, after two years of continued payment of wages, your employee ends up in the WIA, the UWV will pay him a statutory WIA benefit. As an employer, you can also take out WIA insurance for your employees. WIA insurance is a supplement to the WIA benefit that your employee receives in the event of long-term occupational disability. By taking out WIA insurance, you actually provide an extra financial safety net for your staff.

Is WIA insurance mandatory?

No, taking out WIA insurance is not required by law. As an employer, you can decide whether or not to offer WIA insurance to your staff. You can offer WIA insurance on a collective basis. Your employees can then decide for themselves whether they want to participate in the insurance or not. There are, however, a number of collective labor agreements that stipulate that it is mandatory to take out WIA insurance. Even if taking out WIA insurance is not compulsory according to your collective labor agreement, it still has a number of advantages. We will look at these in more detail below.

What does WIA insurance cost?

The cost of WIA insurance depends on a number of factors, including:

• The type of business you have
• The age of your employees
• Your employees' salaries
• The number of employees who have been disabled before

Among other things, these factors determine the amount of the premium for WIA insurance.

The premium you pay depends on several factors. WIA insurance does not have to be expensive. If you want to offer the insurance, but cannot afford to, you can choose to deduct (part of) the premium from the employee's salary. Another good thing to know is that the premium of a WIA insurance is tax deductible on the income tax. In this way, the insurance can be more advantageous than you might think.

Why take out WIA insurance?

With WIA insurance, you reduce the risk of financial problems for your employee. With WIA insurance, your employee receives a supplement to the legally required WIA benefit. Depending on the type of benefit, the employee's income is supplemented in the event of long-term occupational disability. That is why WIA insurance is a good secondary employment condition. It allows your employee to take the time to get better (if possible) without worrying about paying the bills. It is often seen as a sign of good employment practices.

Benefits WIA insurance

Taking out WIA insurance has several advantages. Both for you as an employer and for your employees:

• Your employee's income is supplemented, depending on the type of benefit
• The insurer offers help with the reintegration of your employee
• WIA insurance contributes to the financial well-being of your employees
• WIA insurance is a good secondary condition for your employees and is known as a sign of good employment practices
• The premium of a WIA insurance is tax deductible
• The benefit is stable in value

What is the difference between a WIA insurance and a WGA gap insurance?

WIA is the law for disability of employees. The WIA consists of the WGA and the IVA. WGA stands for Work Resumption Partially Disabled Persons. If an employee is more than 35% incapacitated for work, he will have to deal with the WGA. The WGA gap is the loss of income that can occur when an employee is disabled for a long time.

WIA insurance provides a supplement to the statutory WIA benefit. This applies to both the WGA and the IVA benefit. A WGA gap insurance only supplements a statutory WGA benefit, i.e. in the event of partial incapacity for work. With a WGA gap insurance your employee will not receive a supplement to the IVA benefit.

Taking out WIA insurance? Request a quote directly on Alpina\.nl

At Alpina.nl you can request a no-obligation quote for WIA insurance. Based on a number of details about your organization, we can give you an accurate quote. Do you have any questions about taking out WIA insurance? Then be sure to contact us! Our insurance specialists will be happy to help you.