It concerns errors in Wajong benefits for young disabled individuals or in determining the so-called reference wage on which the disability benefit is based. Both ministers have recently held discussions with WIA and Wajong beneficiaries. The personal stories highlighted the issues that people are facing. Quality studies show that UWV makes too many mistakes regarding the reference wage, as stated in the letter. In addition to the ongoing recovery action for disability benefits (WIA), UWV will not manually search for other errors in these schemes. Such a new, broad recovery action would lead to UWV being unable to fulfill its regular duties. This would cause the organization to become overwhelmed. Both ministers consider this undesirable. Additionally, not all errors have immediate negative consequences for people.
Minister Eddy van Hijum: “Too many mistakes are being made in these benefits. For people dealing with this, it leads to uncertainty and many questions. In some cases, people do not receive what they are entitled to. That cannot happen, and it must really improve. However, setting up a broad new recovery action also comes at the expense of people currently receiving benefits. Therefore, we have chosen a targeted approach to correct the errors and largely prevent them in the future. Additionally, we must address the problem at its core: improving quality and simplifying the system. So that the regulations are more manageable, fewer mistakes are made, and people know where they stand.”
WIA
For the WIA, UWV conducted a sample of 375 files over October and November 2024. It showed that 86% were correct and 9% incorrect. Although these percentages provide a reasonable picture, the results are not yet reliable enough due to insufficient experience with this form of quality control. UWV is working hard to improve this.
Reference Wage in the WIA
In another study, UWV specifically looked at errors in the reference wage. This is a calculation of the wage that someone would have earned if they had not become ill. In a sample, the reference wage of 298 files was checked. In 77.2% of cases, it was correctly determined. In 11.8% of cases, it was not, but the error had no direct financial consequences for those involved.
In 1.6% of the files from the sample, there was an error with direct financial consequences for people. In total, this involved five out of 298 files. Of these five individuals, one was wrongly denied a benefit. Four were wrongly granted a benefit. UWV will take additional measures shortly to improve the quality of the determination of the reference wage. UWV is also taking measures to prevent errors that currently have no financial consequences from being corrected before they do.
Wajong
In January 2025, the first preliminary results regarding the quality of the Wajong assessment were shared with the House of Representatives. UWV conducted further checks on these samples. The results show a similar picture to January. In a sample from 2024, UWV checked 304 files. It shows that in 88% of cases, the decision was correct. In 9% of cases, an error was made. However, like with the WIA, these results are also insufficiently reliable.
Ongoing Recovery Action
In the ongoing recovery action, UWV is reviewing 43,000 WIA benefits from the period January 2020 to December 2024. This includes calculations in the daily wage. UWVs aim is to start checking benefits this spring. Additionally, UWV has developed an improvement approach and implemented a new quality management system for disability benefits. Both are intended to lead to earlier detection of potential errors to prevent and correct them.