What UWV support is available when starting a business with a disability?
What would you like help with?
Detailed explanation, checklist and sources
Discuss your plan before starting. Credit, aids and income supplements are separate schemes. Support may sometimes be possible without a UWV benefit.
On this page
1. Discuss your options
Contact your work expert, or ask UWV for the route if you receive no benefit. A long-term illness or disability must affect work. Discuss capacity, entrepreneurial skills and effects on existing benefits; starting does not automatically preserve payments or cover every cost.
2. Check credit conditions
Credit requires medical evidence of lasting impairment, inability to borrow from a commercial bank or Qredits and a viable business plan. Work must suit experience and skills. UWV requires a BKR credit overview. Residence and business in the Netherlands are the default; Belgian/German border regions may sometimes qualify.
3. Separate preparation and start-up loans
At review UWV lists maximum preparation credit € 4,377.65 and start-up credit € 47,285.37. Approved preparation costs are reimbursed as incurred, not paid all at once. Both are interest-bearing loans, repayable immediately under agreed terms within ten years at most. If start-up credit is refused, spent preparation credit need not be repaid; voluntary withdrawal does require repayment.
4. Check income supplementation separately
Income supplementation is not for every disabled starter. UWV requires partial WAO or WAZ and actual earnings below its assessed earning capacity. Self-employed applicants apply within six months after the end of the year they started. Maximum four years: first 20% of assessed earning capacity, then 75%,50% and 25% of that supplement, not turnover.
5. Request suitable aids
Reading assistance, sign-language interpretation or necessary workplace aids may help. Ask UWV in advance which individual scheme and application apply; obtain assessment before incurring costs. Employer application conditions for employees do not automatically apply to your own business. Loan approval is not an aids decision.
6. Keep applications, decisions and repayment terms
Prepare plan, finance need, refusals, BKR, requested aid and income. Send medical evidence only through UWV's designated channel. UWV gives eight weeks for credit when necessary data are complete; investigation may be needed. Check amount, interest, repayment, start and remedies in the written decision. This preparation is no application or loan.
Does every starter get four years of supplementation?
No. This requires, among other things, partial WAO/WAZ and earnings below UWV-assessed earning capacity. Credit and aids have different conditions.
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- Plan and start date
- Capacity and suitable work
- Bank/Qredits outcome and BKR
- Costs and aids
- WAO/WAZ and first accounting year
- Decision, deadlines and repayments
Contact with a lawyer
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View the current application processSources
Need personal assistance? Request a lawyer through our chat. We explain the next step; submitting a request does not engage a lawyer. The links below support the legal information.
Rijksoverheid · Ondernemen met beperking ↗UWV · Starterskrediet ↗UWV · Inkomenssuppletie WAO/WAZ ↗RVO · Financiële hulp starten bij beperking ↗Sources may be in Dutch. General information about Dutch law, not individual legal advice.