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, this benefit is not available to employees working under a contract of employment or a contract for the performance of work, or to self-employed persons (self-employed persons), even if they voluntarily pay sickness insurance.
Sickness benefits can be paid when caring for a sick child under the age of 10 , or for a child under the age of 10 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 self-employed but work for a company for a commission or fee every month? Are you “employed” through a shvarcsystem? You might be wondering if you could be eligible for 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, sick pay and entitlement to sick pay. To mitigate at least some of the disadvantages, we’ll outline what your options are.
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Even if you are self-employed and pay voluntary sickness insurance, you are unfortunately not covered for nursing care. So if you are looking for a form or template for this benefit as a self-employed person, you are looking in vain. There is no such option in the law and self-employed persons are not entitled to the nursing allowance.
It is not generally widely known that you can also insure your sickness benefit. You just have to look in the insurance companies’ offers and do some 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 treatment 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.
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 seven-day hospital stay) and their doctor has decided that full-time care is necessary for more than 30 days. This could be, for example, the long-term illness of a young child, but it could also be the serious post-accident condition of an adult who requires care from others.
Unlike normal short-term care , self-employed workers who have been covered by sickness insurance for at least 3 months immediately before the date of entry into long-term care will qualify for this option. You must not be self-employed and 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.
After all, the situation of the wage earner may not be dramatic in the event of sickness. By combining savings, payment of one of the insurance options and possibly an agreement with your employer, you can move closer to a similar position to that of an employee.
In 2025, wage earners are in for some rather unpleasant news. The main one is an increase in the so-called minimum assessment base. “Until 2024, this will be 25 per cent of the minimum wage. However, by government decision, it will increase by 5 per cent every year until 2026 to gradually reach 40 per cent of the average wage. So already in 2024 the base has increased from 25 to 30 per cent and this year it will rise to 35 per cent. Therefore, the minimum monthly advance payments for CSSA contributions will increase from CZK 3,852 to CZK 4,759 in 2025.
At the beginning of 2025, an amendment to the Sickness Insurance Act came into force (except for some provisions that are to come into force later). This amendment should mean good news for self-employed workers. This is because freelancers should now also be entitled to sick pay. It should be sufficient for them to have paid voluntary sickness insurance for at least three months.
The situation of self-employed workers with regard to sick pay is currently more complex than that of employees, who are automatically entitled to this benefit. Nevertheless, there are ways to improve the position of the self-employed, from commercial insurance to individual agreements with the employer. However, a forthcoming amendment to the Sickness Insurance Act could bring about a positive change, which would make self-employed workers eligible for sickness benefits if they meet certain conditions. So if you are a freelancer, keep an eye on legislative changes and actively consider your security options in case of emergencies.
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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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