The system and management of controls on WIA benefits at UWV have fallen short for years, according to research by the Netherlands Court of Audit. This has led to tens of thousands of incorrectly determined benefits. The outgoing Minister of Social Affairs and Employment accepts the recommendations for improvement. But that is not enough, the Court of Audit states, because the disability system also falls short.
The Netherlands Court of Audit previously established that the implementation of the Work and Income according to Labor Capacity Act (WIA) has become unworkable. This is due to complex regulations and the associated shortage of insurance physicians. The outgoing Minister of Social Affairs and Employment believes the WIA can be made more workable and less error-prone. She is exploring a revision of the daily wage system. The Court of Audit states that a faster pace is needed in simplifying the WIA. It is important that political parties include this in their negotiations for a coalition agreement for a new cabinet. Good workability of the WIA is necessary, also to prevent long-term sick employees from being uncertain about their entitlement to and the amount and duration of their benefit.
The sharp increase in errors in WIA benefits was mainly due to corona measures
Errors and poor assessments did not lead to action for a long time
Since many had to work from home during the corona period, the number of errors at the implementing organization UWV in determining disability benefits has increased sharply. Quality management at UWV failed to such an extent that poorly substantiated social-medical assessments and errors in benefits persisted for a long time. For tens of thousands of long-term sick employees, errors were made by UWV between 2020 and 2024 in calculating the standard wage, daily wage, or benefit duration. Also, during this period, in about a quarter of the assessments by insurance physicians and labor experts, it was impossible to verify correctness due to insufficient reports. It is therefore uncertain whether the work capacity of people was correctly assessed, and the duration and degree of disability.
A one-sided focus on reducing waiting lists for the WIA and a blind spot at the UWV board and the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment regarding the correctness of benefits contributed to no one responding to the many errors in benefits. This is stated by the Netherlands Court of Audit on December 3, 2025, in the report Errors in WIA benefits: blind to the signals, citizens affected.
The regulations for disability (WIA) are already error-prone due to complexity. Employees also have to work with many different and outdated IT systems, and perform many tasks manually. Moreover, UWVs approach was mainly focused on reducing long waiting lists for new assessments. The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment has been too hesitant in simplifying the regulations and has also had a blind spot for weak quality management at UWV. The legality figure for WIA benefits agreed upon by the minister and UWV was almost 100 percent and gave a falsely reassuring impression.
Probably 32,770 people received incorrect WIA benefits
The Court of Audits investigation was conducted at the request of the then Minister of Social Affairs and Employment. UWVs estimates that probably 32,770 people received too low or too high WIA benefits between 2020 and 2024 are considered realistic by the Court of Audit. It adds that an estimated 400 people wrongly did not receive WIA benefits and 1,600 people wrongly did.
During the corona pandemic, UWV employees were forced to work from home, there were fewer quality controls, and the quality management system at the involved UWV division did not work well. As a result, it was unclear what the consequences of errors were for benefit recipients, signals were ignored, and many more errors were made than before.
UWV has started a recovery operation in which 43,000 benefits are checked for correctness of the daily wage (based on risk analysis). UWV does not have the manpower to check all 252,000 new benefits from the period 2020-2024 for all possible errors.
Too little attention to quality of UWV operations
The problems examined in the WIA reveal dysfunctional patterns and reflexes in the steering relationship between the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and the implementing organization UWV.
At the ministry, there is a lack of attention to the quality of operations at UWV. Information exchanged about service quality is vague and not always followed up. The ministers supervision lacks depth and sharpness. There is no joint agenda for WIA regulations between the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and the UWV board. This hinders results for citizens.
Recommendations to improve steering and supervision
UWV management reports fewer incorrect WIA assessments after measures taken at the end of 2024. But the Court of Audit states that it has not been demonstrated that the measures are sufficient to reduce the number of errors to an acceptable level. Therefore, the High Council of State makes recommendations to improve the accuracy and verifiability of benefits and assessments. The autonomous culture at UWV – quality management can vary per division – allows for many differences in quality between departments and employees. The steering to assess sick employees on time is stronger than the attention to doing so correctly. Signals that the financial legality is high falsely give the impression that few errors are made. If UWV wants to steer on the human dimension, the basis for performing statutory tasks must first be in order. Ministerial supervision of UWV must focus more sharply on the financial risks citizens face. Benefit recipients must also be able to verify whether the amount of their benefit is plausible. This requires a fundamental adjustment of the WIA. This is also necessary for the workability of this law.
