Losing your job in the Netherlands: applying for WW at UWV, how much you get, and what it means for your residence permit

When a job ends in the Netherlands, one deadline decides how much benefit you get. You apply for WW (werkloosheidsuitkering, unemployment benefit) at UWV, the employee insurance agency, from 1 week before you become unemployed at the earliest until at most 1 week after you become unemployed. Apply later and you probably lose part of the benefit. Two other things decide the outcome. The way your contract ends decides whether UWV pays at all, because a settlement agreement with the wrong wording can end your right to WW. And if your residence permit names one employer, you get only 3 or 6 months to find a new one. This guide covers the application, the conditions, the 2026 amounts, the duration, the obligations while you receive WW, and the residence-permit side.

You apply for WW through Mijn UWV, the personal portal on uwv.nl. UWV sets the window: you can apply from 1 week before you become unemployed, and at the latest within 1 week after you became unemployed. If you are already unemployed for longer than a week when you apply, you will probably get a temporarily lower benefit or no benefit at all. Fill in the application even if you expect to find work quickly. The form takes about 30 minutes.

Have these ready before you start:

• Your DigiD, the national login for government services
• Your last payslip (loonstrook)
• Your last employment contract (arbeidscontract)
• Your bank account number
• The date on which you become or became unemployed

UWV decides within 4 weeks of your first day of unemployment. If you apply after that day, UWV decides within 4 weeks of the application. The decision letter states whether you get a benefit and for how long. Your first payment comes later than the decision, because UWV only pays after you file your first monthly income form. An example from UWV: you become unemployed on 5 October. The income form is ready for you on 1 November. If you file it that day, the money is on your account by 15 November at the latest. If that gap is a problem, you can contact UWV and ask for a one-off advance payment (voorschot), which is always lower than the benefit itself.

UWV lists four conditions that all have to be met:

• You are insured for unemployment. This is normally the case if you are or were employed by an employer in the Netherlands. Your employer pays the premium, not you.
• You worked at least 26 weeks in the last 36 weeks before you became unemployed. This is the wekeneis (weeks condition). The weeks may be spread over several employers, and the number of hours per week does not matter for this test.
• You worked on average at least 10 hours per week and you lose 5 or more working hours per week, plus the wage over those hours.
• You are directly available for paid work.

Three situations widen the rules. If you worked on average less than 10 hours per week, you qualify when you lose at least half of those hours and the wage over them. If you were ill, on pregnancy and maternity leave, or on unpaid leave during those 36 weeks, UWV can look further back than 36 weeks. And if you worked as a self-employed person before or alongside your job, you may still have a right to WW. You also normally keep the right to WW when you and your employer end the contract together and record it in a settlement agreement, as long as the text is correct.

UWV names one more rule outside the four conditions: you must not be culpably unemployed (verwijtbaar werkloos). Under article 24 of the Werkloosheidswet you are culpably unemployed in two cases. The first is when there was an urgent reason for the dismissal and you can be blamed for it. The second is when the job ended by you or at your request, without the situation being so bad that staying could not reasonably be expected of you. In plain terms: resigning normally ends your right to WW. UWV also names one more case: giving up a permanent contract for a temporary contract of less than 26 weeks.

Work in another EU or EEA country, in Switzerland and in some treaty countries can count towards your Dutch WW. UWV needs form PD U1 to assess it. You request that form yourself from the benefit organisation of the country where you worked, so start the request as soon as you know your job is ending. Two other rules apply here. You must stay in the Netherlands and be available for work here. A different rule applies if you live in another EU or EEA country or in Switzerland and work in the Netherlands. When you become fully unemployed, you claim unemployment benefit in the country where you live, not in the Netherlands.

UWV first calculates your dagloon (daily wage) from your sv-loon, the gross wage on which social insurance contributions are calculated. It then multiplies the dagloon by 21.75, the average number of working days in a month, to get your WW-maandloon (WW monthly wage). That figure is what you earned on average per month. The benefit is 75% of the WW-maandloon for the first 2 months, and 70% from month 3 onwards.

There is a maximum. UWV calculates the highest possible benefit with the statutory maximum daily wage (maximumdagloon), which is €309.91 gross per day for 2026 and includes holiday allowance. If your own dagloon is higher, UWV uses the maximum instead. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment decides twice a year, on 1 January and on 1 July, whether the amount changes. €309.91 × 21.75 gives a capped WW-maandloon of €6,740.54, so no WW is higher than the bottom row of this table:

These are gross amounts. UWV cannot estimate your net benefit in advance, because the wage tax withheld differs per situation. Any income you earn while on WW is offset against the benefit, so the benefit drops or stops when you start working again. Two extra rules can help. If you take a job that pays less than your old one and later become unemployed again, UWV can use your old income through the garantiedagloon (guaranteed daily wage). And if your total gross income falls below the social minimum, you may be entitled to a toeslag (top-up) from UWV. The top-up raises your gross income to at most that minimum and carries 8% holiday allowance. UWV checks this automatically during the WW application. The top-up has its own conditions, including that you live in the Netherlands and are between 18 and state pension age. The UWV top-up is paid under the Toeslagenwet, which is on the IND's list of benefits from public funds. If your permit is temporary, get advice before you accept it.

Meeting the weeks condition alone gives you 3 months of WW. You get longer only if you also meet the jareneis (years condition): in the last 5 years before you became unemployed, you worked at least 4 years that count as employment history (arbeidsverleden). Once you meet it, the length follows your years. You get 1 month of WW per full calendar year for the first 10 years of employment history. For years beyond those 10, calendar years up to and including 2015 add 1 month each, and years from 2016 onwards add half a month each. The calendar year in which your benefit starts does not count.

The minimum and maximum are set in the law. Article 42 of the Werkloosheidswet says the benefit lasts at least 3 months and at most 24 months, counted from the first day on which the right arises. If you have worked in the Netherlands for a few years, your benefit is likely to last 3 to 8 months. Budget for that period. UWV has a calculator (rekenhulp) for the duration and the amount on the pages linked above, and your decision letter states your exact end date.

An employer cannot simply end a permanent Dutch contract. The rules on dismissal give them three routes:

• Permission from UWV, for economic reasons or after long-term incapacity for work.
• Dissolution by the kantonrechter (subdistrict court) on personal grounds, such as poor performance, culpable conduct or a broken working relationship.
• A written agreement with you.

Each route has a different effect on your WW.

A vaststellingsovereenkomst is a written agreement in which you and your employer end the contract together. You are not obliged to sign one, and you can normally negotiate the terms. Before you sign, check four points that decide whether you keep your WW:

• The agreement states that your employer took the initiative for the dismissal and that you did nothing wrong. UWV asks for exactly that wording.
• There is no urgent reason for a summary dismissal, such as theft. An urgent reason you can be blamed for makes you culpably unemployed under article 24 of the Werkloosheidswet.
• The agreement states your employer's notice period, the one from your contract or CAO. Without it, UWV applies the notional notice period and pays nothing over those weeks.
• You are not ill on the day you sign. UWV states that with a dismissal during illness you usually have no right to a benefit.

Get advice before you sign. A lawyer, a trade union or your legal expenses insurer can read the text with you, and Het Juridisch Loket, the free legal advice desk, is the low-cost option. This matters most if you are ill, or if your residence permit or your partner's depends on your work. After signing you have a reflection period (bedenktijd) of 14 days in which you can withdraw in writing without giving a reason. That becomes 21 days if the employer never told you about that right. Never sign on the day the document is put in front of you. It is normal to reply after 7 to 14 days.

Your WW starts after your notice period, not on the day you stop working. The employer's statutory notice period grows with your service: 1 month under 5 years, 2 months from 5 to 10 years, 3 months from 10 to 15 years, and 4 months from 15 years. If a UWV dismissal procedure ran first, the employer may deduct the procedure time from the notice period, but at least 1 month must remain. You and your employer may agree no notice period, or a shorter one than the law gives. UWV then still applies the fictieve opzegtermijn (notional notice period), the notice period you should legally have had. You get no benefit during those weeks. That is why a settlement agreement that ends the contract next Friday, with no notice period, can leave you with a month or more without pay and without WW. After a trial-period dismissal there is no notice period, so the WW starts immediately.

When the employer ends your contract, or does not renew a temporary one, you are entitled to the transitievergoeding (transition payment). It is one third of your gross monthly salary for every full year of service, counted from your first working day, with a pro-rata amount for the rest of the contract. Four years at €2,700 gross per month gives 4 × €900 = €3,600 gross. From 1 January 2026 the maximum is €102,000 gross, or 1 gross annual salary if you earn more than that. The payment is separate from WW, and receiving it does not reduce your benefit. One warning: with a settlement agreement the contract ends by mutual consent, so the transition payment is no longer automatic. It becomes something you negotiate, and a fair agreement pays at least the amount you would have received after a formal dismissal. The employment contracts guide covers contract types, trial periods and the chain rule in full.

WW comes with duties, and UWV checks them. You must apply actively for suitable work, accept and keep suitable work, avoid becoming more unemployed, and carry out the tasks that appear in your Werkmap (work file) on werk.nl or on Mijn UWV. You must also report changes: illness, holidays, new work or a change in your hours, volunteering, starting a course or internship, and changes in your personal details.

The job-search obligation (sollicitatieplicht) is the most concrete duty. Usually you agree the number with your adviser werk (work adviser) or receive it as a task in your Werkmap. If nothing is agreed, do and report at least 4 job-search activities per 4 weeks. These activities count:

• Applying to a vacancy, or sending an open application.
• Attending a job interview.
• Putting your CV on a vacancy site.
• Registering with an employment agency.
• Calling or visiting an employer about work.
• Doing an assessment or a test.
• Having a networking conversation.
• Following a job-search workshop or a UWV webinar.

Browsing a vacancy site does not count. You report activities through werk.nl or the UWV app, and you keep copies of your application letters and interview invitations for at least 2 years, because your adviser asks for proof.

The definition of suitable work (passende arbeid) changes at the 6-month point. For the first 6 months you look for work at your own level of education, experience and pay. You only have to apply for jobs with a travel time of up to 2 hours a day. After 6 months of WW every job counts as suitable. That includes jobs with a lower education level, less income, or a temporary or part-time contract, and the travel-time limit rises to 3 hours a day. If an employer wants to hire you for work UWV considers suitable, you have to accept it and the salary that comes with it. Refusing suitable work means temporarily less benefit or none, and you may have to repay what you received. If you have serious personal objections, for example medical ones or care duties at home, tell your adviser werk and they assess whether the refusal is justified.

UWV pays only after you file the monthly income form. The Inkomstenopgave (income statement) is ready on Mijn UWV and in the UWV app on the first day of each month and covers the month that just ended. You have until the end of that month to file it, and you must file it even in a month where you earned nothing. UWV pays within 14 days of receiving the form, and usually within a few days. Report wages, self-employed income, one-off work, and pension income. UWV compares your figures with what your employer reports to the Belastingdienst, the tax administration, and corrects your benefit afterwards if the two do not match.

What job loss does to your residence depends entirely on which permit you hold. Some permits give free access to the labour market and do not care who your employer is. Others name one employer on the document. The work rights by residence permit guide explains which permit allows which work; this section only covers what happens when the job ends.

With a single permit (GVVA, gecombineerde vergunning voor verblijf en arbeid), the extra document with your permit states which employer you may work for. The highly skilled migrant permit works the same way, and only an employer recognised by the IND as a sponsor can apply for it. Both permits fall under the EU Single Permit Directive. Under the revised directive the IND gives you up to 3 months to find a new job after job loss. That becomes up to 6 months if you have held the permit for 2 years or longer. The same 6 months apply if you were the victim of labour exploitation. The search period can never run longer than your permit is valid. If the search period passes and no new employer has registered you, the IND may revoke your residence permit. When you do find a new job, your old employer must notify the IND that you left, and your new employer must apply for a new residence permit. Check with your old employer that they actually deregistered you.

A permit that is not tied to one employer, such as a partner or family permit or an asylum residence permit, does not end because a job ends. What can matter later is income. The IND checks income when you extend a permit or apply for permanent residence, and for a family permit it looks at the income of the sponsor in the Netherlands.

If you are an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen you need no residence permit, and your passport or ID card proves your lawful residence. Your right to stay longer than 3 months does depend on your situation. As a worker you must do genuine and effective work. The IND defines that as working at least 40% of a normal full working week, or earning at least 50% of the social assistance amount that applies to you. While you still do genuine and effective work, applying for a benefit does not end your right of residence. If you look for work instead, the IND expects proof that you were registered as a job seeker with UWV during the first 6 months. Register with UWV the moment your job ends. After 5 years of lawful residence you usually have permanent residence, and from that point a benefit application does not affect your stay.

The IND treats WW and social assistance differently. Under the IND's income requirements, income from an unemployment benefit counts as independent income. Benefits from public funds, such as social assistance under the Participatiewet, do not. Benefit income counts as sustainable when you will still receive it for at least another 12 months, so a short WW is not enough on its own for an application that has an income condition. Three applications have a second income test: staying with a partner or family member, a permanent residence permit, and a long-term EU resident permit. For those, the IND can also look at your average monthly income from work or from an unemployment or sickness benefit over the last 12 months or the last 3 years.

Social assistance is the one that carries risk. The IND lists the benefits from public funds that can end a right of residence, and the Participatiewet (social assistance) heads that list. The Toeslagenwet, the law behind the UWV top-up, and the IOAW are on the same list. The municipality that decides on your application informs the IND, and the IND then assesses your situation depending on your permit. Rent benefit, healthcare benefit, childcare benefit and the child-related budget are explicitly not in that group and do not affect your residence. Naturalisation is a separate question. The IND's conditions for becoming a Dutch national contain no income requirement at all. But you must hold one of the qualifying permits: a permanent residence permit, a long-term EU resident permit, or a temporary permit with a non-temporary purpose of stay. Stay with a partner or family member is such a purpose. EU citizens qualify through EU law, without a permit. The naturalisation article covers those requirements in detail.

Employers sometimes draft the agreement as ending 'at the employee's request' or 'by mutual initiative'. That single phrase can make UWV treat you as culpably unemployed, because the law says you are culpably unemployed when the job ended by you or at your request. Change the text before you sign. Explaining it to UWV afterwards does not help. Ask for a version that says the employer proposed the dismissal, gives the reason, states that you are not to blame, and names the employer's notice period. If the employer refuses to change it, take the document to Het Juridisch Loket, a trade union or your legal expenses insurer. If you already signed, the 14-day reflection period may still let you withdraw in writing, and it is 21 days if the agreement never mentioned that right.

Delays are common. Apply immediately, even if the week has passed. UWV states that an application filed when you have already been unemployed for more than a week probably leads to a temporarily lower benefit or no benefit at all. Apply anyway, immediately, and do not wait any longer to reduce the loss. Then read the decision letter carefully. If you disagree with the outcome, the letter states the deadline for filing an objection (bezwaar) and how to do it. If there was a reason for the delay, such as illness or hospital admission, write it in the application and add proof.

Resigning normally ends your right to WW, because you caused the unemployment yourself. The same applies to a specific trap UWV names: giving up a permanent contract to take a temporary contract of less than 26 weeks. If the new job then ends, you have neither the old job nor a benefit. Two practical rules follow. Never hand in your notice before the new contract is signed. And if your working conditions are so bad that you feel you must leave, get advice first. The law only excuses leaving when continuing the job could not reasonably be expected of you, and you have to be able to show that. Agency work has its own version of this rule: if your agency offers you a new temporary contract and you refuse it, you get no WW.

Do not sign anything while you are ill. UWV states that with a dismissal during illness you usually have no right to a benefit, and it advises getting legal advice before you agree to the dismissal. If you are ill and the job ends anyway, you may fall under the Ziektewet (Sickness Benefits Act) rather than WW, so tell UWV about the illness when you apply. The sick leave guide covers sick pay, the company doctor and what your employer may and may not do while you are ill.

Weeks worked in another EU or EEA country, in Switzerland or in some treaty countries only count once UWV sees form PD U1 from that country's benefit organisation. Request it as soon as you know your job is ending, because these forms take time to arrive. Weeks worked in the Netherlands through an employment agency count too, and are sometimes registered late. You can check what UWV has recorded about you in your verzekeringsbericht (insurance statement) on Mijn UWV. If a period is missing or wrong, report it with your payslips or contracts as proof.

Your decision letter states the end date, so you know months in advance. UWV lists what can follow WW: a bijstandsuitkering (social assistance benefit) from your municipality, an IOW or IOAW benefit for older workers, and PAWW. PAWW is a private top-up that exists in some sectors, so check whether your CAO has one. Social assistance is applied for at the municipality, not at UWV. Bijstand and IOAW are both on the IND's public-funds list, so the residence-permit warning above applies to both. Two housekeeping points. Keep all documents about your benefit for at least 2 years, because UWV can ask to see payslips, application letters and contracts. And plan the last two months of WW around the 6-month rule on suitable work, because by then every job you are capable of counts as suitable anyway.

Three guides continue from here. Finding a job in the Netherlands without fluent Dutch covers where the vacancies are and how applications work here. The agency work guide covers the fastest route back into paid work, including what an agency contract does to your rights. And the toeslagen overview shows which benefits your household can claim once your income drops, because rent benefit and healthcare benefit are recalculated on your new, lower income and do not affect your residence permit.