Although it is said in the Netherlands that the economic crisis is over, unemployment is still high and people are still being made redundant. And finding a new job is not easy, especially for people in the 40+ age group. What do you think of becoming self-employed?
Independent… it's a big step
If you are currently dealing with forced redundancy, you will experience all kinds of emotions such as disappointment, insecurity and anger. But you can't dwell on that for too long, because you have to immediately start finding a new job, especially if you are the breadwinner, and report to the UWV to apply for benefits for the time you still have to work. have nothing else. In general a difficult time that causes great uncertainty and unrest.
One of the options to start working after your dismissal is to establish yourself as a self-employed person. The UWV offers options to start as a self-employed person, whether or not while retaining partial benefits, but it does impose certain conditions. First of all, the UWV proposes an investigation period (preparation period), but this is not mandatory. During this period, which lasts a maximum of 6 weeks, you are not obliged to apply for an application, but you do have an obligation to accept work and you are given the opportunity to find out whether starting your own company is realistic and feasible, which location makes sense, whether financing, insurance , whether permits are required, what conditions the tax authorities impose and whether you want to engage an accountant (if you do not have an affinity with finance yourself). This period leads to the decision whether or not to start your own company. If you want to start, you draw up a business plan that provides insight into the position, goals and feasibility of your company. The UWV sets this as a condition for starting an entrepreneur and will assess that business plan.
You can start as a self-employed person in three ways:
- Starting without a start period and complete end of unemployment benefit:immediately terminate the benefit in full and no more obligations to the UWV, but also no health insurance and WIA (Work and Income according to Labor Capacity Act) insurance. Right to revival of the remainder of the unemployment benefit if the company is wound up within the revival period. The recovery period starts after (fully or partially) termination of unemployment benefits and is linked to the duration of unemployment originally granted (minimum 18 months and maximum 38 months). The remaining benefit will be revived after the company has ceased completely and if the company is deregistered from the Chamber of Commerce (KvK).
- Starting without a starting period and partly WW:definitive partial hours reduction in addition to part WW with an obligation to apply and monthly statement of direct and indirect hours. This is not a favorable arrangement. This is best explained by means of an example. If you receive benefits for 40 hours and you work 20 hours for a client as a self-employed person in the first week, then 20 hours will be cut. The following week you can only work 10 hours, then you will be cut by 20 hours that week. If you can work 40 hours as a self-employed person in the first period (so you will be cut 40 hours on your benefit) and after a while you fall back to fewer hours, you are no longer entitled to unemployment benefits. This arrangement is only interesting if you are sure that you can work a fixed number of hours as a self-employed person for a very long time, but that is almost impossible in practice. In addition, hours worked also include non-billable hours such as acquisition, drawing up quotations, network conversations and the like.
- Starting with a helping hand from UWV, namely with a starting period:The benefit will be reduced by 29 percent for 26 weeks (this percentage is based on experiences from the old scheme). A condition for this scheme is that you must not have started as a self-employed person in addition to former employment, that the business plan is feasible and that you are able to provide for a structural existence as a self-employed person. The aim of the scheme is complete outflow from the benefit. During this period you have no obligation to apply for a job and no obligation to accept suitable work (accepting a job offer). You are insured under the Sickness Benefits Act and WIA for the percentage of the unemployment benefit. After 26 weeks you determine whether you will continue as a self-employed person completely, whereby the unemployment benefit will be terminated, or whether you will stop completely as a self-employed person. The unemployment benefit will then continue under the condition that you deregister the company from the Chamber of Commerce. A third option is partly further as a self-employed person and partly WW. Your benefit will be reduced to the number of hours you work as a self-employed person (note:this also includes the non-declarable hours as described in option 2).
Starting as a self-employed person is a possibility to get back to work after dismissal, but there are some snags if you want to do this with (partial) retention of benefits. As soon as you register your company with the Chamber of Commerce, you are registered in systems that the UWV and the Tax Authorities can access. If you already have plans to establish yourself as a self-employed person and you are still working for your employer (which may or may not involve dismissal), it may be useful to register with the Chamber of Commerce. You will not be deducted from your unemployment benefit if you are already registered as a self-employed person before applying for unemployment benefit.
