When do you receive low or high unemployment (WW) premium?
When do you receive low or high unemployment (WW) premium?
To be considered for the low unemployment premium the employer has with the employee a:
- written labour agreement
- a contract for an indefinite period
- it is not a stand-by agreement
Read more about the stand-by agreement below
We can speak of a stand-by agreement if the scope of the work is not determined in the number of hours per time period of a maximum of one month. This also applies if the size of the work not determined in the number of hours in a time period of a maximum of one year and where the right of payment is equally distributed over that time period. In this case we can speak of a stand-by agreement. If you excluded the obligation of payment when your employee does not do the agreed upon work, then it is also a stand-by agreement. For employees that do not meet these three conditions you will need to pay the high unemployment premium.
Revision unemployment premium: correction from low to high premium
There has been a revision of the low unemployment premium in the following situations:
- When a labour agreement ends two months after the employment starts; the two months in the maximum probation period for a contract of indefinite time.
- When there is 30% more payout (wages) than has been determined in the labour agreement in a calendar year.
Low premium exemption situations
A low premium is applicable for an employer in the following situations:
- The employee is below 21 years old and received a maximum of 48 hours (per return period of four weeks) or 52 hours (per return period per calendar month) of wages.
- He has an apprentice in employment that is following the apprenticeship training through a guided learning program (BBL). The agreement with the BBL-apprentice must have a date and has to be registered in the administration of the employer.
- When the employer pays a premium for employee insurances (WW, ZW, WIA, WAO, WAZO as employer payment or bear the excess of the insurance. The employee owes the employer payment for this part of the low WW-premium.