Benefit for older and partially disabled workers (IOAW).

What is it?

The IOAW benefit supplements your income up to the welfare level. The IOAW applies to older unemployed workers. The difference with a Social assistance benefit is that the IOAW does not look at your assets. You can keep your savings, your own house or your boat. However, your partner's income is deducted from this supplementary benefit.

The number of people in your household determines the amount of your benefit. If you live with more people in the house, you can share living expenses and your benefit will be lower. This does not apply to resident children under 21, students and commercial relations (tenants).

What to do

You are entitled to the IOAW if:

  • You were born before January 1, 1965.
  • you became unemployed on or after age 50 and your unemployment benefits ended.
  • you became entitled to WGA benefits on or after age 50 but lost those benefits because you were less than 35% incapacitated at the reexamination.
  • You are partially disabled (less than 80%) and were already receiving IOAW benefit on December 28, 2005. But you are not entitled to a supplement through the Supplementary Benefits Act, because you have a partner who was born after December 31, 1971, and you have no child younger than 12 years of age.
  • you are willing to do something in return in the form of socially useful work, such as volunteer work. The municipality may ask for this.

How long does it take?

The municipality will make a decision within 8 weeks of receiving your application. This period may be extended once.

Request

If you wish to apply for IOAW benefits, please contact the Social Domain Implementation Department by telephone at (0475) 85 90 00.

What happens next?

Within one week, you will receive an appointment with an income case manager and an employment case manager. The income case manager will inform you about your IOAW application and what information we need from you. The employment case manager will talk to you about work and social participation. The meeting will take place at the town hall at Leudalplein 1 in Heythuysen.