Support for the government’s plans to introduce a compulsory invalidity insurance for freelancers is waning, with only 36% now backing the plan, according to research by small business bank Knab.

Two years ago, 41% of the self-employed supported the move.

The government wants to introduce the insurance in 2027. Freelancers without alternative arrangements would then have to pay some 8% of their income into a special fund, known as an AOV, which would pay out the equivalent to the minimum wage after a year.

The long waiting time before claims can be made is one of the main objections to the plan, Knab said. Support for the scheme would grow to 57% if the wait was cut back.

Research has shown that 42% of freelancers have no financial security net if they become unable to work and four in 10 of them would not be able to survive financially.

Knab director Nadine Klokke said the lack of insurance is a problem which needs to be solved. ‘Our advice would be to make the AOV compulsory for all workers, not just freelancers,’ she said.

‘And at the same time, the amount of sham self-employment needs to be reduced,’ she said, in a reference to the number of people who work as freelancers for a single employer, or so-called platform companies. This, she said, ‘would make the big companies carry a larger part of the social security system.’