UWV acknowledges Wajong’s mistakes: distance puts pressure on quality assessment

Mistakes are made when assessing applications for Wajong benefits. This may have resulted in vulnerable young people receiving the wrong benefits or no benefits at all.

Write about that One Today and he A.D based on an assessment by the UWV of Wajong’s assessments and discussions with (former) UWV staff. The message follows on from previous messages about disability benefit (WIA) issues.

The picture that emerged from a report by the UWV earlier this year has been described as frightening. An employee says the internal audit department made the “doom and gloom” findings.

A sample was taken of 110 files from the first half of 2024. A good decision was made in 58 percent of the cases. In 10 percent of these files a wrong choice was definitely made, but there is doubt in the rest of the decisions.

“With these kinds of percentages, all alarm bells should go off in the organization,” said a UWV employee. It means that young people with illness or disability miss out on benefits, get them wrongly or are wrongly diagnosed.

The UWV confirms that the samples do indeed show that errors were made in the calculation of Wajong’s benefit. The implementation group says that the aim to reduce waiting times sometimes puts pressure on the quality of the assessments. “Due to stress and pressure to eliminate backlogs among people waiting for a social medical assessment, we have done fewer checks. “

There are two parts to Wajong’s appeal. The medical assessment determines whether or not someone is eligible for the Wajong. A labor specialist’s assessment affects the amount of the benefit. The UWV cannot say whether errors were made in the medical assessment as a result of which Wajong was given to people incorrectly or not.

Mistakes in the calculations do not happen very often, says the UWV, because with the Wajong these are usually very simple. Wajong consists of 75 percent of your final income. For many applicants, the lowest income is the starting point because they have never worked before.

In 2017, internal auditors already pointed out that there were ongoing problems surrounding the Wajong. These reports were then published Loyalty request this in 2019.

Inside sources also told the AD that the UWV has been aware for months that there are more problems than just one WIA benefit. Apart from the Wajong, there are also victims of the WW (unemployment benefit) and the Sickness Benefits Act. One Today writes that, according to Van Hijum, this would not be on the same scale as the errors in the WIA. A former UWV employee doubts that.

This summer the UWV said the Wajong welfare rules are too complicated and should therefore be simplified. Therefore, some of the people who receive such a benefit have too little money left to meet.

“That’s exciting and sad for people because it can be overcome,” UWV board member Nathalie van Berkel said at the time. “They’re leaving it behind. These rules have the opposite effect of what they intend.”