Cookies
To assist you better and on a more personal level, we utilize cookies. This is to ensure you can navigate our website seamlessly. Additionally, it allows us to understand how visitors interact with our site, enabling us to tailor the experience for even better user experience. Naturally, we're keen on understanding the outcomes of our marketing efforts and ensuring the advertisements you encounter from us match with your interests. However, we do require your consent for this.
As a freelance healthcare professional, you may be wondering if you will be forced to return to permanent employment. The ministry has announced a number of measures. The aim is to reduce the differences between freelancers and salaried employees. These measures affect you as a freelancer. In this blog, we discuss what each measure means for you.
Measures for freelance healthcare professionals: the 8th progress report
The measures were announced in December 2022* in the 8th progress report (source: Central government). In it, the Ministry of Social Affairs & Employment shared its plans regarding freelancers and regulations surrounding their work. The ministry wants to restore the balance between freelancers and salaried employees, with the aim of making freelance work more future-proof.
To achieve this, the government is focusing on:
Creating a more level playing field between types of contracts
Clarifying rules for assessing the employment relationship
Improving enforcement in relation to false self-employment
If you would like to know more about this report, what exactly the measures entail and why the government wants to take these measures, read our blog on the future of freelancers in healthcare.
*Good to know: these are only announced plans. The measures are not yet in place. The government plans to submit a proposal to parliament in early 2024, with a view to publishing the legislation on 1 January 2025.
Will the measures lead to a forced return to contracted employment for freelance healthcare workers?
This depends mainly on two measures:
1. Creating a more level playing field between types of contracts
The government wants to create a more level playing field in several ways. First, by reducing tax breaks for freelancers. Thus, the self-employed deduction will be reduced considerably. In 2022 this was €6,310 and it will be only €900 by 2027. As a freelancer, it is therefore important to take into account ever decreasing self-employed deductions.
Second, the government is exploring making disability insurance compulsory for freelancers. That would mean paying a mandatory premium for this.
So, the measure to level the playing field will affect your wallet. If that becomes financially unfeasible, the measures could mean a forced return to contracted employment.
2. Improving enforcement in relation to false self-employment
False self-employment is common in healthcare. If you are in false self-employment, it looks like you are working in healthcare as a freelancer. But actually, you should be labelled as a salaried employee.
This is not allowed; however, it was not enforced. But that is about to change. If you are unsure whether you are working as a false self-employed healthcare professional, read more about freelance in healthcare and false self-employment.
If you are currently working as a false self-employed professional, the measures may force you to return to contracted employment. Or force you to work in contracted employment for the first time, if you have always worked as a freelance healthcare professional.