BBZ - Incapacitated for work in Belgium

If you work in Belgium and you fall ill, your employer will continue to pay your net wages for one month. After this month, for the next 11 months of your illness, you will receive a benefit through the Belgian health insurance fund.

If you are ill due to an accident at work or an occupational illness, your benefit will not be paid by your health insurance fund but by your employer's industrial accident insurance company or the Occupational Illnesses Fund.

You live in the Netherlands and work in Belgium, and you fall ill. What do you have to do now?

You must call in sick to work and to the UWV (telephone number 0900 9294). The UWV will arrange for you to see a medical adviser in the Netherlands, and will inform your Belgian health insurance fund that you reported sick and send them a medical report. You will still have to send a medical certificate to your employer, using the UWV sickness report form.

Your employer can also have you called up for a medical examination in Belgium. After six months of illness, your employer will be allowed to dismiss you.

The amount of the benefit

The benefit will amount to no more than 60% of your wages, with a maximum of € 74.40 per day. The monthly amount will vary according to the number of working days in a month. For example, in 2011 the month of February has 24 working days, and March has 27. The benefit can therefore never be more than 27 x € 74.40 = € 2,008.80.

Ill for more than a year

If you have been ill for a year and your degree of incapacity for work is 66% or more, you can get an incapacity benefit. You will continue to receive this benefit as long as you are incapacitated for work. The benefit will stop when you turn 65.

If you have suffered an accident at work, you will be entitled to a benefit from the insurance company where your employer has taken out insurance against industrial accidents.

The amount of the incapacity benefit