Fewer freelancers and the self-employed have insurance against illness or private pensions, national statistics agency CBS said on Friday.

In 2016, 19% of the 895,000 self-employed in the Netherlands had disability insurance, compared with 23% in 2011.And in terms of pensions, 10% of the self-employed had put cash into annuities in 2016, compared with 13.3% in 2011.

People working in the construction sector are most likely to have supplementary insurance – almost one in three pay into work-related disability schemes, the CBS figures show.

Earlier this week, the European Commission said the Netherlands needs to reduce the incentives given to both employers and employees to work via temporary and self-employment contracts.

The commission warned that the self-employed are more often under- insured against disability, unemployment and old age. ‘This could affect the sustainability of the social security system in the long run,’ the commission said.