What is 3rd track reintegration?

Third-track reintegration is the guidance towards suitable work of someone who receives a WGA benefit after two years of illness. It follows track 1 and track 2 and starts once UWV has completed the WIA assessment. Who runs and pays for it depends on one thing: whether the employer is an own-risk bearer for the WGA. An overview of all three tracks is in the difference between track 1, 2 and 3.

When does track 3 begin?

Track 3 begins after 104 weeks of illness, once the WIA assessment is done. UWV determines how much the person can still earn in work that suits their limitations. That percentage sets the benefit:

• 35 to 80 per cent incapacitated: a WGA benefit. There is earning capacity left, and it is meant to be used.
• 80 to 100 per cent with a realistic chance of recovery: also a WGA benefit. The limitation is complete, but not permanent.
• 80 to 100 per cent with no prospect of recovery: an IVA benefit. Reintegration does not apply.
• Less than 35 per cent: no WIA benefit. The employee falls back on the employment contract or, if that ends, on unemployment benefit.

So track 3 applies to the first two groups. If UWV imposes a wage sanction because too little was done in the first two years, everything shifts by up to a year.

UWV or the employer: who is responsible?

This is where employers are most often caught out, and the difference is substantial.

If you are not an own-risk bearer, UWV takes over the guidance as soon as the WGA benefit starts. From that point you are no longer responsible for the reintegration. You do feel it in the costs: the benefit counts towards the differentiated premium you pay into the Return to Work Fund for up to ten years.

If you are an own-risk bearer for the WGA, little changes about your role after two years. You pay the benefit yourself and you remain responsible for the reintegration, for up to ten years from the start date of the benefit. What that means in practice is covered in reintegration as a WGA own-risk bearer.

What happens to the employment contract?

After 104 weeks of illness the ban on dismissal during illness lapses. The employer can then ask UWV for permission to end the contract on grounds of long-term incapacity, and owes the statutory transition payment. In practice the employment often ends at that point.

For an own-risk bearer that changes nothing about the obligation, which is attached to the benefit and not to the contract. That gives track 3 a different character from the two tracks before it: you are guiding someone who no longer works for you, so there is no workplace, no line manager and no day-to-day contact to build on.

What does a track 3 programme involve?

People in track 3 have usually not worked, or barely worked, for two to three years. The distance to the labour market is therefore greater than in track 2. At the same time something has been gained: capacity for work was established at the WIA assessment rather than estimated, so you know what you are working with.

A programme therefore focuses on:

• establishing which work is feasible within the assessed capacity;
• choosing a search direction that actually exists on the labour market;
• rebuilding working rhythm and application skills;
• approaching employers, including an explanation of the no-risk policy;
• using a stepping stone where it fits: a trial placement, voluntary work or self-employment.

The goal is rarely a full-time job. The goal is to use the residual earning capacity UWV has established.

The no-risk policy removes the barrier at the new employer

Placements stand or fall on this. If an employer takes on someone with a WIA benefit, the no-risk policy applies: should that employee fall ill again, UWV pays a Sickness Benefits Act payment and the employer’s premium does not go up. The cover usually runs for five years from the start date of the WIA benefit.

Many employers do not know the arrangement exists. Raising it early, rather than at contract stage, saves a great deal of hesitation.

An example

A warehouse employee is off work with back problems. A return to the warehouse floor turns out to be impossible, and track 2 produced no placement in the second year of illness. At the WIA assessment he is rated 55 per cent incapacitated: seated work is still possible, up to four hours a day. His employer is an own-risk bearer and therefore stays responsible.

In track 3 the search is for work that fits those four hours: work preparation, planning, quality control. A regional employer hesitates over the risk of renewed illness, until the no-risk policy comes up. He starts four hours a day. He earns again, the WGA benefit becomes a top-up rather than a full benefit, and his former employer’s costs come down with it.

Summary: what is third-track reintegration?

• Starting point: after 104 weeks of illness and the WIA assessment
• For whom: people on a WGA benefit, so 35 to 80 per cent incapacitated or fully incapacitated with a chance of recovery
• Who guides: UWV, or the employer if they are an own-risk bearer for the WGA
• For how long: for an own-risk bearer, up to ten years from the start date of the benefit
• Goal: suitable work within the assessed capacity, so that residual earning capacity is used
• Main lever: the no-risk policy for the new employer

More information at UWV

The official rules and current amounts or deadlines are at UWV on reintegration. These can change, so always check them at the source for a specific situation.

Guidance with a track 3 programme

Care4Careers guides own-risk bearers and their former employees through third-track reintegration, throughout the Netherlands. Would you like to know what is possible in your situation? Get in touch without obligation.