What insurance do you need when you’re self-⁠employed? What’s a must, what pays off and what doesn’t

As an employee, you get a solid safety net almost as a gift. Your employer arranges your hospitalisation insurance and your group insurance, and if you fall ill, they simply keep paying your salary at first. Go self-⁠employed and a large part of that safety net disappears. Not because the self-⁠employed are poorly protected, but because you now have to arrange it yourself.

And that’s the rub: nobody explains what you really need. Your accountant knows your figures, you only hear from your health insurance fund when you’re ill, and whoever sells you insurance has an interest in you taking out plenty. So we set it out here: what’s compulsory, what you really need, what you might consider and what’s not worth your money.

What’s compulsory

Less is compulsory than you’d think:

• You join a social insurance fund and a health insurance fund. That way, your social contributions build up a basic level of cover: your pension and a benefit if you fall ill.
• If you drive a car, you need third-⁠party motor insurance, even if your BV pays for the car.
• If you take on staff, occupational accident insurance is compulsory.
• For some professions, professional liability insurance is compulsory, such as for architects and accountants. Not for recruiters.

The rest is up to you. And that’s exactly the problem: what isn’t compulsory, everyone puts off.

What if you fall ill?

This is where the biggest difference with your life as an employee lies. When you’re self-⁠employed, your health insurance fund doesn’t pay you part of your salary, but a fixed amount per day, regardless of what you earned. If you’re ill for more than seven days, you get it from the first day. If you’re ill for a shorter time, you get nothing.

How much is that? After a year of illness, as a single person you get €65.56 gross a day, six days a week: around €1,700 gross a month. With dependants, it’s €82.64 a day. Lotte, from our piece on what you earn as an independent recruiter, keeps around €6,550 net a month: her income would then fall by almost three quarters. And her fixed costs just keep running.

What many people don’t know: if you’re ill for a long time, you can ask your social insurance fund to let you stop paying your social contributions, without losing your rights. This is called assimilation. It helps, but it doesn’t fill the gap.

Guaranteed income: the insurance you really need

Guaranteed income insurance fills that gap. It pays you an amount every month if you can’t work because of illness or an accident, on top of what your health insurance fund gives you. It’s the most important insurance for a self-⁠employed person, and also the least known.

This is how it works:

• You choose the amount, usually up to around 80% of your gross salary.
• You choose a waiting period: the time you bridge yourself before the insurance pays out. It’s usually 30 days, but it can be up to a year. The longer it is, the lower the premium.
• The benefit runs until you can work again, or until the age in your contract, but never beyond your retirement.
• The premium depends on your age, the amount and the waiting period. The younger you are when you take it out, the cheaper it is.
• For tax purposes, you deduct the premium as a professional expense, or your BV pays it. The benefit is then taxed as replacement income.

Read the exclusions carefully. Many policies don’t cover mental health conditions, or only to a limited extent, and in a job with this much pressure that’s no small detail. And take it out while you’re healthy: if you’re already unable to work, you can no longer insure yourself, and an existing condition is often excluded.

Hospitalisation: keep your employer’s policy

Your health insurance fund pays part of your hospital costs. You pay the rest yourself, such as a single room or your doctor’s extra fees, unless you have hospitalisation insurance. As an employee, you probably had it through your employer.

Good news: you can take it with you. If you were covered for at least two years without a break, you can continue the policy yourself with the same insurer, with no medical questions and with similar cover. A condition that’s covered today stays covered. Your premium does depend on your age at that point.

Watch the deadline. When you leave, you get a document about it, and from then on you have 30 days to say you want to continue the policy. You can extend that deadline once by 30 days. If you let it lapse, you lose that right for good. If you go for a new policy after all, yourself or through your BV, you’ll usually have to fill in a medical questionnaire.

Liability: when you make a mistake

A mistake is easily made, in our trade too. A CV that ends up with the wrong client, a reference you didn’t check when you promised you would, a client who holds you responsible for a bad hire. There are two types of insurance for that, usually in the same contract:

• Professional liability insurance covers the damage if a client holds you liable for a mistake in your work. It isn’t compulsory for recruiters, but it is advisable: one claim can cost more than years of premiums.
• Public liability insurance covers damage you cause to others while you work, such as a client’s laptop you knock off the table. It costs little.

If you have a BV, there’s also directors’ liability insurance. It protects your personal assets if you’re held personally liable as a director for a mistake in running your BV. For a one-⁠person BV with no staff, that risk is limited. If you take on people or your BV grows, it becomes worth having. It never covers fines or fraud.

Legal expenses and tax assistance

Legal expenses insurance pays your lawyer and the court costs if you end up in a dispute, for example with a client who doesn’t pay their invoice. Tax assistance insurance does the same in a tax audit: it pays for the hours your accountant or tax adviser spends defending your case.

Do you need them? Not always. With a good accountant and few disputes, they’re more of a comfort. If you work with lots of clients and large fees, a single dispute can quickly cost more than the premium.

Cyber

As a recruiter, you work with personal data all day long: CVs, salaries, references. If your mailbox is hacked or a file leaks, you sometimes have to report it and restore your systems, and a candidate or client can hold you liable. Cyber insurance covers those costs and gets you help from specialists straight away. If you work with a large database, it’s worth considering.

What you usually don’t need

Let’s be honest: you can also insure yourself to the hilt. Two things are usually best left alone:

• Separate accident insurance, if your guaranteed income insurance already covers both illness and accidents. Then you’re paying twice for the same thing.
• Insurance for things you don’t have, such as product liability or an expensive business interruption policy if you work from home or in a coworking space. Also check what your coworking space already covers.

If in doubt, have a broker put your policies side by side. You don’t want to be underinsured, but you don’t want to be overinsured either.

In short

How it works at Shortlist

At Shortlist, you don’t have to figure all that out on your own. In your member portal you’ll find our regular broker, and they’ll sort it out with you. With client disputes and backdoors, we’re by your side anyway. Curious what that looks like? Read how it works or have a chat with us via Join us.

Frequently asked questions

Is guaranteed income insurance compulsory?

No, but it’s the insurance you’ll miss most if you don’t have it. When you’re self-⁠employed, your health insurance fund pays you a fixed amount that’s far below your income.

Can my BV pay for my insurance?

Largely, yes: your guaranteed income, hospitalisation, liability and legal expenses insurance. Discuss with your accountant how that works out for tax.

What if I already have a medical condition?

Then make sure you continue your employer’s hospitalisation insurance: the insurer asks no medical questions there. With new guaranteed income insurance, an existing condition is often excluded.

How much does all that cost?

That depends heavily on your age, your income and your choices. Always ask for a few quotes, and compare the exclusions, not just the premium.

This is general information, not personal advice. Have your policies checked by a broker.

You’ll find all the steps at a glance in our guide Becoming an independent recruiter in Belgium.

Sources

• Sickness benefit for the self-⁠employed: RIZIV/INAMI, your benefit as a self-⁠employed person (in Dutch) and RIZIV/INAMI, 2026 amounts (in Dutch).
• Compulsory and additional insurance: Wikifin (in Dutch) and VLAIO (in Dutch).
• Guaranteed income insurance: Wikifin (in Dutch) and Partena Professional (in Dutch).
• Continuing your hospitalisation insurance: Vanbreda, individual continuation.