UWV news: Change to how the daily wage is calculated

Since June 1 2013, the daily wage for unemployment (WW) benefit has been set in a different way. The daily wage is used as the basis for calculating the amount of benefit.

Someone who is entitled to WW benefit always receives a basic payment for three months. For the first two months, the amount of this payment is 75% of the daily wage, and the amount drops to 70% for the third month. For those receiving WW benefit for longer than three months, the amount of the payment remains at 70% of the daily wage after the third month as well.

Up to June 1 2013, the daily wage was based on the average salary for all employment in the 12 months prior to becoming unemployed. Since June 1 2013, the daily wage has been calculated by looking only at the average wage that someone earned per day in their last employment! Here, wage is understood to mean the salary from which social security contributions have been deducted (called ‘sv-loon’ in Dutch).

The daily wage is calculated on the basis of the wage earned by someone in a year. If the term of employment was shorter than a year, the daily wage is calculated on that shorter period. If someone has worked a full year, the wage earned is divided by 261 (which is the number of wage days in a year), and if they have worked for a shorter period, the wage is divided by the number of wage days worked.

This change can be favourable if someone has earned more in their last term of employment than previously, but unfavourable if the last job was less well-paid than previous jobs in the last twelve months.

What remains unchanged is that the daily wage can never exceed the legal maximum daily wage of € 197. If the daily wage is higher, the legal maximum daily wage is taken as the basis for calculating the amount of benefit.

Two examples:

Example 1
Jan has worked for a year and has received a wage of € 10,000 + € 800 holiday allowance
His daily wage is thus: ((€ 10,800 - € 800) × 108/100) ÷ 261 = € 41.38

Example 2
Els has worked for 4 months and has received a wage of € 6,000. She is entitled to 8.33% holiday allowance, meaning that € 500 holiday allowance has been reserved.
Her daily wage is thus: ((€ 6,500 - € 500) × 108/100) ÷ 87 = € 74.48

You can find a calculation tool on the UWV website to help you calculate the amount of benefit.