Sickness and disability benefits for first responders (emergency workers)

Does your organisation employ emergency workers (first responders)? Then your employees are entitled to benefits in a number of situations. If an emergency worker is missing or killed as a result of their work as first responder, their partner or children may also be entitled to benefits.

Who is an emergency worker (first responder)?

An emergency worker is someone who works as an employee or volunteer at:

• municipal or regional fire brigade
• primary healthcare service
• ambulance service
• municipal emergency services control room
• Netherlands Red Cross
• other recognised institutions in the emergency and healthcare sector

Sickness benefits for illness or disability

Is your employee a first responder? If they become ill or disabled as a result of the work as an emergency worker, they can apply for:

• sickness benefit for first responders in case of illness or disability
• disability benefit when the sickness benefit ends and the employee is still unable to work after the sick pay has stopped

Then main conditions for sickness benefit for first responders are:

• Your employee has become injured or ill during their work as an emergency worker.
• Your employee became injured or ill within 6 months after stopping their work as a result of being a first responder.
• The illness or disability is a result of the work as an emergency worker.

Applying for sickness or disability benefits for first responders

Your employee has to apply for the sickness or disability benefits for first responders within a year of becoming ill or disabled. They can do so by contacting the Ministry Justice and Security (JenV).

Widow’s and orphan’s benefits

Was your employee a first responder and did they die during their work as an emergency worker or within 2 years of performing this work? Or did they go missing as a result of their work? Then their partner and children may be entitled to benefits. The partner or children are eligible for these benefits under the following conditions:

To receive widow’s benefits for first responders, the partner must:

• be married or registered as partner
• be under pension (AOW) age

To receive orphan’s benefits for first responders, the child or children must:

• be younger than 21 years of age
• be single and have never married

Applying for widow’s or orphan's benefits for first responders

The partner and/or children of your employee can apply for these benefits to the Ministry Justice and Security (JenV).