Employees in Germany are familiar with the situation: if you work and have to look after your sick child at home, you will receive child sickness benefit in many cases. This wage replacement benefit is paid by the statutory health insurance fund. One of the prerequisites for this is that the child has statutory health insurance in either Germany or the Netherlands and that the parent caring for the child has statutory health insurance in Germany. In addition, a medical certificate must be provided in all cases.

This used to be a major problem for cross-border workers, as the Dutch family doctor is not allowed to issue certificates. Thanks to the Dutch UWV, however, there is now a pragmatic solution.

You can read here what you have to do as a resident of the Netherlands to obtain a certificate from the UWV.

Background information on the problem can be found in the video recently published by the European Commission on YouTube.