Sickness benefits can be awarded in a number of situations. Whether it is a sick child, an accident, pregnancy or the common cold. In this article we will tell you in which situations you are entitled to sickness benefits, what conditions you need to meet and how the specific amount is calculated.
Sickness insurance provides employees (or even self-employed people who pay for sickness insurance voluntarily) with financial help in the event of temporary incapacity for work due to illness, accident, quarantine, caring for a sick family member or as a result of pregnancy, maternity or childcare.
The rules on sickness insurance are laid down in the Sickness Insurance Act. It contains the specifications of the premiums to be paid by employees and employers, the conditions for entitlement to sickness insurance benefits, and the rules for the administration and control of the scheme. The law also includes other specific provisions concerning the assessment of health status and the provision of benefits in various specific situations.
Sickness insurance is covered by social insurance. Find out how much you pay for social insurance, what it consists of and where all your money goes.
Payment of sickness insurance is compulsory for employees who work in the Czech Republic and have an income of at least the so-called decisive income (currently set at CZK 4,000 per month and increasing to CZK 4,500 from 2025).
Employees on a contract for performance of work (DPP) participate in sickness insurance only if their monthly income exceeds CZK 10,000 (in 2025 the threshold will increase to CZK 11,500).
In the case of small-scale employment (i.e. employment in which the income does not reach the threshold of CZK 4 000 or is not agreed at all), the employee is insured only in the months when his/her income exceeds the threshold.
The premium payments include contributions from both the employer and the employee. The total social security rate is the product of the assessment base and the percentage rate. The employer’s assessment base is the sum of all the assessment bases of its employees. For the employer, this is 24.8% of the assessment base (of which 2.1% goes to sickness insurance). The employee then pays an additional 0.6% for sickness insurance.
Participation in sickness insurance is voluntary for self-employed workers. In order to participate, self-employed workers must sign up for insurance and pay the premiums. The minimum monthly base on which the premium is calculated is set at CZK 8 000 per month and the premium rate is set at 2.7%, which means that the minimum premium is now CZK 216 per month. The due date is always from the first to the last day of the calendar month for which the premium is paid.
Are you interested in how support for self-employed people works? Find out when you qualify for sickness and unemployment benefits.
Employers have a number of obligations under the sickness insurance scheme, which can be divided into notification, recording and claiming obligations:
As part of the notification obligations, the employer must register in the register of employers on the prescribed form within 8 calendar days of its establishment. The same time limit applies to deregistration from the register when the employer ceases to be an employer. The employer must also notify the date of the employee’s commencement of employment and the date of termination of employment, again within 8 calendar days.
In the case of small-scale employment or agreements to perform work, the employee’s entry into employment must be notified by the 20th day of the month following the month in which participation in insurance arose, unless the employee has submitted a claim for benefits earlier. Termination of employment in these forms of employment shall be notified after the end of the agreed period of employment.
Are you wondering what the employer’s obligations are for FTEs and FTEs? The answer can be found in our article.
Record-keeping obligations include keeping records of employees participating in sickness insurance. This includes information about the employee, such as their identification details, employment information, earnings, periods of temporary incapacity for work and other relevant data such as pension or health insurance information.
Another key area is the acceptance of claims for sickness insurance benefits. The employer must receive the employees’ applications for benefits and the documents needed to pay them.
These documents must be converted into electronic form and forwarded to the relevant district social security administration (OSSZ). For applications for benefits such as paternity or nursing allowance, the documents must be forwarded after the expiry of the support period or after a certificate of continuing need for care has been issued. For sickness benefit claims, the employer must submit the supporting documents after the first 14 days of temporary incapacity for work.
Need some advice?
Do you want to know what your rights are during your temporary disability or do you think your employer has cheated you? Let our experienced attorneys answer your questions and help you find a suitable solution.
Sickness insurance includes six basic benefits provided by the District Social Security Administration. All benefits are paid per calendar day.
However, only one benefit is provided in the event of concurrent employment giving rise to sickness insurance. The amount of this benefit is then determined by the earnings from all these jobs.
Let us now look at the different types of benefits in more detail:
Sick pay is paid in the event of temporary incapacity for work, as certified by your doctor. You are entitled to sick pay from the 15th calendar day of your temporary incapacity for work. The benefit is paid until the end of the incapacity for work, but for no longer than 380 calendar days from the date of the incapacity for work. If you are self-employed, you must have been covered by voluntary sickness insurance for at least three months before the incapacity for work began.
During the first 14 calendar days of incapacity for work, employees are compensated by their employer. This compensation is payable per working day and is regulated by the Labour Code. Self-employed workers do not receive any support during this period.
The exception is for recipients of a third-level old-age or invalidity pension. For them, sick leave is limited to a maximum of 70 calendar days and only for the duration of the insured activity.
Sick pay can be taken after the end of the employment which gave rise to the insurance if your temporary incapacity for work occurred during the protection period. This period lasts 7 calendar days from the end of your employment. For employment of less than 7 days, the protection period corresponds to the duration of the employment.
However, the protection period does not apply to:
Boththe cooling-off period and the protection period protect employees in very specific situations where they are vulnerable and could easily find themselves without work or resources. How do these two very similar legal concepts differ and to what circumstances can they be applied? Find out in the next article.
Maternity allowance is provided to insured persons in connection with pregnancy, childbirth or taking custody of a child. You are entitled to maternity allowance if you have been covered by sickness insurance for at least 270 days in the past two years. At the same time, there is also a protection period of 180 days from the end of insurance (leaving employment).
In addition, for self-employed workers, there is a condition of participation in sickness insurance for at least 180 days in the last year before the start of the support period.
Maternity allowance can be taken from 8 to 6 weeks before the expected date of childbirth. The support period lasts:
The benefit can be taken up to a maximum of 1 year of age when the child is born, or up to 7 years of age when the child is taken into foster care.
The law allows for alternation of maternity benefits between the mother and the father of the child. By written agreement, both may draw the benefit in separate periods, each having to meet the statutory conditions. The father can start receiving the benefit from the 7th week after the birth at the earliest, and must take care of the child for at least 7 days at a time.
You can read more about the entitlement to maternity pay and how maternity pay works for self-employed workers in our article.
Attendance allowance is a sickness insurance benefit paid to employees who are unable to work because they have to care for a loved one. The benefit is intended to provide financial support during periods when care is necessary because of a medical condition or emergency.
You are entitled if:
We’ve coveredeverything you need to know about sick pay in detail in the next article.
The condition is that the person shares a household with you. This does not apply to caring for a relative in the direct line (such as a parent or child), spouse, civil partner, sibling or parent-in-law.
Attendance allowance cannot be paid for a child for whom the other parent is already receiving maternity allowance or parental allowance (if that person is able to care for the child). Only one beneficiary can receive nursing care at a time, or the two beneficiaries can alternate, but the benefit is granted only once.
They are not entitled to the nursing allowance:
There is noprotection period for sickness benefit, so the entitlement arises only when you are actively participating in sickness insurance.
The sub-support period for nursing benefits is:
Do you also always get sweaty when filling in forms, applications and questionnaires? Find out how to apply for nursing benefits.
You are entitled to a pregnancy and maternity allowance if you have been transferred to a lower-paid job because of pregnancy, maternity or breastfeeding. This is to compensate for a reduction in income that was not your fault.
The compensatory allowance is calculated as the difference between the daily assessment base you were paid before the transfer and the average of your earnings in the new job in each calendar month after the transfer.
The allowance is paid for the calendar days you work in the new job from the date of transfer to the new job, but no later than the beginning of the 6th week before the expected date of childbirth. Alternatively, after the birth if the transfer to another job is due to maternity or breastfeeding.
Need some advice?
Do you want to know what your rights are during your temporary disability or do you think your employer has cheated you? Let our experienced attorneys answer your questions and help you find a suitable solution.
The paternity allowance is financial support given to the father of a child to help his wife or girlfriend care for the newborn.
Entry into paternity allowance must be within 6 weeks of the birth of the child, or within 6 weeks of taking custody of the child (for a child under seven years of age). If the mother or child is hospitalised, the 6-week period is extended by the period of hospitalisation. However, the maximum age of entitlement to the benefit is up to 1 year of age of the child.
The paternity benefit may last for a maximum of two weeks and must be taken in full, without interruption. You are only entitled to the benefit once, even if you have had twins, for example.
Wondering how to apply for paternity pay and how much money you will get? The answer can be found in our article.
Long-term care allowance is for people who are caring for a loved one who needs full-time care. This benefit allows carers to temporarily interrupt their work activities to devote themselves to caring.
In order to qualify for long-term care benefits, several conditions must be met on the part of both the person receiving care and the carer.
The person receiving care must have a serious deterioration in health that requires hospitalisation of at least 4 days. And they must also have a doctor’s note that they will need full-time care for at least another 30 days after discharge. In the case of an incurable condition (terminal illness), hospitalization is not a requirement, but the need for long-term care must be certified by a physician. The person being cared for must also consent in writing to the care of a specific person.
The caregiver may be a spouse, spouse, registered partner, lineal relative, sibling, parent-in-law, father-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle or other person living in the same household as the person being cared for. At the same time, the person must have been insured for at least 90 days in the last four months (self-employed in the last three months).
Carers can take turns in caring for each other, but the benefit is not recalculated. The maximum period of sub-support is 90 calendar days, and a new entitlement to the benefit may not arise until 12 months after the end of the previous care for the same person.
It should be taken into account that the employer is not obliged to excuse the absence of an employee for care reasons if he is prevented from doing so by serious operational reasons which he must communicate in writing. If he or she does not want to release you from work, he or she will probably find a reason.
Sickness insurance benefits are calculated on the basis of the daily assessment base. The daily assessment base is determined as the average daily income of the employee or self-employed person. It is calculated on the income for the 12 calendar months preceding the month in which the social event occurred (e.g. illness, need to care for a child). This income is divided by the number of days that can be included in this period.
A percentage of the daily assessment base is then set for each type of benefit:
This amount is further reduced by three reduction thresholds, which are announced annually by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. For 2024, the following apply:
The reduction is as follows:
Sickness insurance provides employees and voluntarily insured persons with financial assistance in the event of temporary incapacity for work. Sickness insurance is compulsory for employees with income above a certain threshold, but self-employed workers can also pay it voluntarily.
The premium rate includes contributions from the employer and the employee, with the assessment base determined by income. Employers have obligations in notifying, recording and receiving claims for benefits.
There are a total of six types of sickness insurance benefits: sickness benefit, maternity allowance, nursing allowance, pregnancy and maternity compensation, paternity benefit and long-term care benefit.
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