Applying for wage subsidy
What is it?
Wage subsidy is compensation to the employer for an employee's loss of productivity. The employee receives wages from the employer and thus builds up pension on the entire income. Wage subsidy can be used until retirement age if needed. The employer receives wage subsidy from the municipality.
The municipality can provide a wage subsidy for people who are less productive than others, for example, due to a work disability. That is, they have a wage value of less than 100% of the legal minimum wage (WML). Wage value means the percentage that someone can earn per hour worked compared to an average employee with similar education and experience who does not belong to the target group of the wage subsidy. This really refers to a limitation in productivity (what can be earned per hour worked?).
The wage subsidy can also be used for school leavers from secondary special education, practical education or the MBO entrance course who have already started working for an employer. This concerns young people who have recently (within a period of six months after leaving the aforementioned education) made the transition from school to work, i.e. who have possibilities for labor participation, but who appear to be unable to earn the legal minimum wage with full-time work. The target group includes not only people with a Social assistance benefit, but also people with a benefit under the Anw, IOAW or IOAZ or non-benefit recipients who are entitled to employment support. Exactly for whom it is used depends on the municipal regulation.
How does it work?
Wage subsidy can be used in the following ways:
UWV Assessment
Admission to the target group.- A person can submit a request to be admitted to the target group wage subsidy. This request can only be made once every 12 months and is decided upon in writing. The municipality can also decide ex officio to admit someone to the target group.
- Finding an employer willing to enter into an employment contract with the individual.A person can find an employer themselves, or the municipality can find a suitable place.
- Determining the exact wage value.If necessary, the municipality can start with a lump-sum wage subsidy for the first 6 months. Prior to the wage subsidy it is also possible to have the person in question first perform unpaid work (trial placement). This possibility is ideally suited to get used to each other, to gain work experience, but also to find out through jobcarving what suits the person concerned best. Due to the possibility of determining a fixed wage subsidy for a certain period of time, a trial placement has no function in determining the actual wage value. This no longer requires a separate application; it is done automatically.
- Re-testing wage value (non-firm).After the wage subsidy begins, the municipality determines, in consultation with the employee and employer, when the wage value will be retested.
Practice Route
- The person concerned has (himself) found a workplace and is already employed.
- The employer asks the municipality to determine the person's wage value.
- The municipality has the person's wage value determined at the workplace using a validated wage value methodology.
- Does the wage value fall below the statutory minimum wage? Then the person concerned can be included in the target group register without an assessment by UWV. The employer is eligible for a wage subsidy for the person concerned.
The Practice Route thus ensures that it is no longer necessary for people entering through the Practice Route to be assessed twice (once for the Employment Agreement indication and once for the wage value) if they have already found a job.
Wage subsidy at the sheltered workplace
The municipality can also use wage subsidy for an employee in a sheltered workplace.
You can apply for a wage subsidy through the municipality of Kerkrade. You can contact the reintegration consultants team at the Activerium, Marktstraat 6 in Kerkrade.
Additional information
local regulations :
Regulation on wage subsidy Participation Act Municipality of Kerkrade 2018