You work freelance, even twelve hours a day, but if your child gets sick, you are much worse off than your friends with a contract and eight-hour days. Are there ways to improve the situation and get a better position as a self-employed person? The answer can be found in this article.
Sickness benefit is a sickness insurance benefit that provides financial support to employees who have to temporarily stop work to care for a sick family member or child. An employee with a contract of employment who is covered by sickness insurance is entitled to sickness benefit. However, as of 1 January 2025, employees working under an employment contract, a contract for the performance of work and self-employed persons (self-employed persons) are also entitled to short-term sick pay, provided they have been covered by sickness insurance for at least three months beforehand.
Sickness benefit can be paid when caring for a sick child under 10 years of age or for a child under 10 years of age if, for example, a school closes (due to an epidemic, accident or other unforeseen event). In certain cases, you can also get care allowance for older children or adult household members if their health is so serious that a doctor says they need the care of another person.
You can readeverything you need to know about sick pay in our next article. In addition, you can also read how to apply for sick pay.
Freelance work can take many forms. You manage a website, edit clothes, translate, all for many different clients, or you have one employer, go to one office and use the company email, yet you don’t have a contract of employment but you do invoicing. The latter variant (the so-called “shvarcsystem“) is basically prohibited by law, but unfortunately we often see it despite these prohibitions.
Are you “employed” through a shvarcsystem? You might be wondering if you could be entitled to paid leave. We take a closer look at this in our separate article.
Most “freelance” work options offer the opportunity to schedule your working hours according to your own preferences or go on holiday whenever you want. However, it cannot be overlooked that friends with a work contract also have a number of advantages over you. For example, meal vouchers, a company laptop, sick days and, last but not least, various benefits. But the situation has changed recently.
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Until the end of 2024, self-employed workers were not covered for nursing, even if they paid for voluntary sickness insurance. However, from 1 January 2025, self-employed workers can take short-term nursing care if they meet the three-month participation requirement and other conditions.
It is generally not widely known that you can also take out insurance for sickness benefits. You just need to look into the offers of insurance companies and do a little research.
You will then have to be patient and wade through several pages of terms and conditions full of exclusions or exceptions to exclusions. In the end, though, you can get insurance that will cover your child’s care in the event of illness, or even in a situation where school is closed. This is usually tied to your own commercial life, sickness or accident insurance. This can supplement the still relatively low nursing allowance from the state.
Do your current advances not match your current income? Find out how to reduce your advance payments for self-employed workers.
Long-term care allows you to care for a loved one, typically a family member, who has been discharged from hospital (after a minimum four-day hospital stay) and their doctor has decided that full-time care is necessary for more than 30 days. This could be a long-term illness of a young child, for example, but it could also be a serious post-accident condition of an adult that requires care from others.
Even as a self-employed person, you can care for a loved one, because self-employed workers who have been covered by sickness insurance for at least 3 months immediately before the date of taking up long-term care are also entitled to long-term care benefits. As a self-employed person, you must not be gainfully employed while receiving this benefit.
If you are working for one employer on a long-term basis in a so-called ‘shvarcsystem’, you can try to agree with the employer whether your mutual agreement could cover the regular lump sum payment, even in the case of holidays or childcare. Such a set-up requires mutual trust and probably cannot be expected to cover a child’s 10 days’ illness each month, but a sympathetic employer might be amenable to some such arrangement. After all, not having to pay social security and health insurance contributions on your behalf will save him many thousands of crowns a month.
From January 2025, a package of amendments will come into force that will bring the nursing allowance for self-employed workers closer to the standard to which only traditional employees with a contract of employment have been accustomed so far. Let’s take a look at how the whole system is set up.
The first hurdle is usually administration. The doctor who prescribes a home treatment regime for the child issues a so-called “decision on the need for treatment“. The school or nursery only issues a certificate when the facility is closed. Both documents are attached to a single electronic form submitted via the data box or the ePortal of the Social Security Agency. Printed forms will no longer be accepted by the authorities from 2025 (exceptions are system failures).
The administration has thirty days from the date it receives all documents to pay the benefit. It is useful to monitor the status of the procedure in the client area of the ePortal, where you can see whether the doctor or school has really sent everything necessary.
The basis for determining the nursing allowance is the reduced daily assessment base. This is the average daily amount calculated from the insurance base on which you have paid sickness insurance premiums for the last twelve months. The amount is reduced from a one-size-fits-all figure – the three thresholds for 2025 are £1,552, £2,328 and £4,656 – and only a set percentage of each band is counted. You then get 60% of the benefit from this reduced base .
Practical example: if you set your sickness insurance premium on a monthly amount of CZK 40,000, your original daily assessment base is about CZK 1,333. After the application of the reduction thresholds, the amount is not reduced (it remains below the first threshold) and the 60% is CZK 789.
Short-term care allowance is paid by the State for a maximum of nine calendar days. For single parents caring for a child under 16 years of age, the period is extended to 16 days. In the event of prolonged illness, another family member may take over the care, but the law allows only one replacement. If the child is temporarily hospitalised, the period of support stops and continues when the child returns home.
If you start paying voluntary sickness insurance within seven days of the end of the employment in which you were already insured, the protection period protects you and the three-month waiting period is no longer applicable. You will then be entitled to the sickness benefit immediately. This rule is especially appreciated by new tradesmen who are transitioning smoothly from employment to business.
From 2025, the minimum voluntary premium is CZK 243 per month. However, it should be remembered that the benefit is “measured” by your actual insurance base, not the minimum advance. If you increase your base to, say, CZK 30,000, you will pay 2.7%. A reasonable calculation therefore depends on how often illness recurs in the family and whether you can afford to cover a short-term shortfall in income from reserves.
You cannot get nursing allowance if another person is receiving maternity or parental allowance for the same child and that person is not ill or hospitalised. The state simply does not want “duplication” of benefits.
There is also an obligation not to engage in gainful employment while receiving sickness benefits. In practice, this means not only skipping billing, but also suspending any marketing or administrative activity aimed at earning money. Violations are subject to retroactive withdrawal of benefits and penalties.
As of 1 January 2025, self-employed persons will also be entitled to short-term sickness benefits if they have been covered by voluntary sickness insurance for at least three months (the same will now also apply to FTEs). The benefit is 60% of the reduced daily assessment base; for 2025, the reduction thresholds of CZK 1,552 / CZK 2,328 / CZK 4,656 apply. The minimum monthly insurance contribution is CZK 243, but a higher insurance base can be set for a higher benefit.
The self-employed person submits an electronic form (data box or ePortal of the ČSSZ) with a doctor’s decision and, if applicable, a school certificate; the administration has 30 days for payment. The protection period allows the benefit to be drawn without waiting if the insurance follows within 7 days of the employment ending.
The short-term nursing benefit lasts for a maximum of nine calendar days (up to 16 for single parents), and it is forbidden to engage in gainful employment while receiving it; the law allows only one replacement of the caregiver. Self-employed workers can also receive long-term care benefits when caring for a loved one after a hospitalisation, again after three months of participation in the insurance and with the condition of a break from work.
Have you applied for sickness, maternity, parental allowance or other benefit and instead of the expected support, you received a rejection? Or were you awarded a benefit in a lower amount than is appropriate for your situation?
Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 10 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
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