The Unemployment Benefits Act (WW)
The application for the unemployment benefit should take place either online (UWV WERKberdift) or at your local Job Center. Note that although both website and application form are in Dutch, employees will assist expats in many languages including English.
As a general rule, the received payment (WW uitkering) in the Netherlands is 75% of your last earned wage for the first two months and 70% thereafter. However, the unemployment benefit is not a welfare benefit; there is a minimum term of 3 months and a maximum term of 38 months.
As from January 2009, the maximum daily wage is set to 183,15 euros.
Obligations & requirements
As soon as you receive the WW benefit, you are obliged to look for a job. Consequently, it is absolutely essential to show proof of job applications. The type of proof and frequency of job applications have to be agreed with the personal job advisors assigned by UWV.
To be eligible for WW benefit you need to satisfy the "26 out of 36 weeks" ruling, which states that you must have been employed for at least 26 out of the 36 weeks before the first day of unemployment as well as under 65 years old and available for work.
› WW weeks requirement: a former employee, who meets only the required number of weeks, will receive WW benefit up to a maximum of three months.
› WW years requirement: A redundant, who has received wages for at least 52 days for four (out of the five) last calendar years from the year of unemployment, is eligible for the unemployment benefit. In this case the duration of the benefit depends on the unemployment history. The benefit will be payable for as many months as the number of years the person he / she was employed.
