Wia consultation: how it works to apply for a wia consultation
In this blog you learn how you can prepare for the WIA consultation UWV for WIA benefit. You will receive a letter from the UWV with an invitation for the WIA consultation. You will receive this letter if you are still unable to work within 2 years of sickness and reintegration efforts at your employer. You may then apply for a WIA benefit. You apply for WIA benefit if you now earn less than on your 1st day of sickness. You can apply for the WIA benefit from the 88th week of 1st day of sickness up to the 93rd week of sickness at the latest.
Apply for WIA benefit
The letter from the UWV explains how you can apply for the WIA benefit. The UWV needs documents like your medical results from your company doctor and a document with reintegration efforts in order to collect all necessary information . You must collect this yourself and send it to the UWV office. The blog post Apply for WIA benefit explains how to apply for the WIA benefit.
Invitation letter from UWV for WIA consultation
You will receive a new letter from the UWV after your WIA application is received online. You will be invited by the UWV for a meeting with the insurance doctor (verzekeringsarts). During this WIA consultation, it is checked whether you could still work. The UWV also looks at what you could earn with this work and whether you may get a WIA benefit or not. After the consultation with the insurance doctor a conversation with the labor expert usually follows.
Why is the consultation with the UWV insurance doctor important?
The results of the conversation with the insurance doctor and later on with the labor expert (arbeidsdeskundige) are very important. The UWV determines whether or not you will receive a WIA benefit on the basis of the consultations. This means whether or not you will receive a monthly benefit in the coming period. The UWV looks at what you can still earn with your limitations and possibilities. This is compared to your salary before you got sick. How much benefit you receive depends on the difference in income between what you previously earned with your job and what you could now earn theoretically with another function you still could do with your limitations. If this means a difference of less than 35%, you are not entitled to a WIA benefit.
What happens during such a conversation for the WIA consultation?
The insurance doctor asks about your physical and / or psychological complaints. Your medical situation will be examined by the insurance doctor. The insurance doctor can form an idea based on your submitted documents you sent to the WIA office with the WIA application. What does your situation look like now? The doctor also asks about your activities in daily life. In addition to the conversation, the doctor may do a short physical examination.
Purpose of the conversation during the WIA examination
The purpose of the consultation is not to determine a diagnosis or to advise on your treatment process. After all, your doctor or specialist has already done this. The insurance doctor determines whether you can still work (partially) in addition to your complaints and limitations. In addition, it will be checked whether your limitations are temporary or permanent.
What will be examined during the WIA consultation?
The UWV will check whether there are opportunities for you to work. It also looks at how much you could earn with the work. The work you did previously does not count. For example, if you previously had work as a nurse, you could still do production work with your limitations. If you want to know more about the different benefits and how they are calculated, visit my blog UWV benefit.
Prepare daytime activities for WIA consultation
Before the consultation, the insurance doctor looks at your daily activities on the basis of a Functional Options List (FML). Questions you can prepare for are:
• What does your day look like?
• What do you do in one day?
You can prepare for the consultation by writing down exactly what you will do in a day. For instance:
• what time you get up
• when and at what time are you going to eat
• whether you need rest in between
• What limitations do you run into during the day?
This concerns an average day during the week. If you find this difficult, you can keep a daily schedule for a week. That way you get a more general picture. You measure not only a day when you have crossed your energy limit, but also when you feel overloaded.
What do you bring to the consultation during the WIA consultation?
Documents and medicines
• Bring a valid passport or ID card. Without a valid passport or ID card, the appointment will not take place and a new appointment must be scheduled.
• Bring the documents you have sent with your WIA application (copy). These are your reintegration report from the employer and the problem analysis and the current opinion of the company doctor or your own doctor/specialist/therapist.
• Bring an overview of all the treatments you are undergoing. Also provide the contact details of your doctor/ specialist or therapist.
• Take with you all medical documents that you have received from your specialist/ doctor or therapist during your sickness. If you don’t have one, please contact your doctor or specialist to get it. If you are in a situation where this will not work, you can ask the insurance doctor to contact your own doctor or specialist. Also bring your medicines and an overview of the medication you are taking. You can request this overview from the pharmacy.
Make sure you know which documents have been sent to the UWV with the WIA application. Check whether the insurance doctor has all the details. If your medical file is incomplete the insurance doctor cannot make a proper consultation. Take any missing document with you to the consultation hour and ask if it can be added to your file.
Take someone with you during the conversation. This can be your partner, companion, a family member, friend or girlfriend. That way, this person can help you remember what the insurance doctor said. And if you bring someone along, they can support you during the conversation. Finally, it is also nice to be able to discuss the conversation afterwards.
Will you immediately receive the result of the WIA examination?
The insurance doctor can often indicate after the consultation whether or not you will be (partially) not be able to work. The insurance doctor may need additional information to estimate whether or not you can work. Request this information yourself or the insurance doctor will request this with your permission from your doctor/specialist or therapist.
How will it continue after your WIA consultation?
After the conversation you will be informed about how to proceed. After the consultation, the insurance doctor makes a report of the consultation. This will be added to your personal file. You have the right to view this report. The report is created using the Functional Feature List (FML). It states what you could possibly still do about work. Normally, every year you receive an invitation for a re-examination. You can read in my blogpost WIA re-examination how it works.
The insurance doctor may expect that you will no longer be able to work at all in the future. In that case you may receive an IVA benefit. If this is the case, you do not have to meet with the labor expert.
Are you expected to be able to work in the future? Then you will be invited to the consultation hour with the labor expert. If the UWV has both an appointment with the insurance doctor and an labor expert scheduled on the same day, ask for 2 separate appointments. State that this is too difficult due to the tension you experience during such a consultation with the insurance doctor and you cannot handle the second consultation.
After the WIA consultation you go to the labor expert (arbeidsdeskundige)
As mentioned above, if the consultation is that you could work in the future, go to the labor expert. He will assess whether sufficient reintegration efforts have been made by you and the employer in the past 2 years. The labor expert looks at the information from the reintegration report that you have sent with the WIA application. The documents such as the action plan and 1st year evaluation during the sickness period, this weighs greatly. You also sent these documents at the time with the WIA application.
The labor expert looks at what kind of work you did and what possibilities there are in terms of work. If the labor expert feels that the reintegration efforts are sufficient, he will determine for what percentage you are not able to work.
When do I receive a WIA benefit?
To receive a WIA benefit, you are at least 35% not able to work. If this is the case, it will be examined whether you can claim a WGA or IVA benefit. You will find all information about these benefits in my blog UWV benefit.