Self-employed people and freelancers who were faced with very sharp rises in the cost of invalidity insurance are to get millions of euros refunded, according to RTL news.

Insurers have now admitted they were wrong to lure in people with low premiums and then to increase them drastically, the broadcaster says. It bases its claim on unpublished documents from the insurance industry.

Some 400,000 freelancers have some form of income insurance to cover them if they are sick for longer periods. However, many do not, because of the high cost.

According to the documents, in one instance a freelancer paid €4,500 too much in premiums to Nationale Nederlanden over an 18-month period.