What are you entitled to when caring for your loved ones?

Conditions of care for a family member

If you have a sick family member and would like to go “on the dole”, so to speak, to get the nursing allowance, you should first of all be a classic employee with a contract of employment. You are not entitled to receive sick pay if you are employed under a contract of employment or a contract for the performance of work, or if you are self-employed. This is a general rule, but it can be changed in exceptional situations, such as the covid pandemic.

Caring for a family member and nursing allowance

Attendance allowance is a sickness insurance benefit paid by the local District Social Security Office. The law sets out the conditions that must be met for it to be paid. The basic ones are the employee’s participation in sickness insurance and the sick person’s stay at home. Should the patient’s condition necessitate a stay in hospital, the nursing allowance would cease to be paid.

Person under treatment

The law allows you to care for a sick family member with whom you live in the household if their condition is so serious that they require the care of someone else. For example, you may be able to get nursing care for a parent or spouse.

Theseverity of the medical condition, as well as the condition of living in the same household, does not have to be examined and fulfilled for children under 10 years of age. For such young children, it is always the case that any illness they may have requires care by another person.

Attendance allowance for healthy children

Attendance allowance for healthy children may sound a bit like a contradiction in terms, but the law does indeed remember them too. In fact, you may be entitled to nursing allowance even in some cases where the child does not need direct treatment but undoubtedly needs care, for example because he or she cannot attend school. We have explored this option really thoroughly, including various modifications and updates by the government during the epidemic of covid.

So these cases are about caring for a healthy child under the age of 10, for the reason that:

• their school or nursery has been closed, for example, because of an epidemic, accident or other similar event
• thechild cannot attend the educational establishment because of quarantine,
• the person who otherwise looks after the child has fallen ill.

Attending person

If you are unable to work for more than a few days and are away from the workplace for more than a few days, you can take the place of the other parent or another person who is covered by the legal conditions. In fact, two persons may be provided with care during the course of a single case of care needs.

This statutory provision thus facilitates the care of a sick child, for example for parents who use alternate care.

Duration and amount of the allowance

You will receive nursing allowance for the first nine calendar days, provided that the need for nursing continues. This can be up to 16 days for employees who are single parents caring for a child under the age of 16 who has not completed compulsory schooling.

The amount of the nursing allowance is based on your salary and is determined as 60% of the daily assessment base per calendar day. This is, in simple terms, the average daily earnings for the reference period – usually the 12 calendar months preceding the month in which the entitlement to sick pay arose. Simply add up the income for that period and divide it by the number of calendar days. This gives the daily assessment base. Three so-called reduction thresholds can still be applied to this amount, which will reduce it to form the so-called reduced daily assessment base.

The easiest way to find out the approximate amount of sick pay is to use one of the online calculators.

Long-term care for the elderly

The health condition of elderly parents or grandparents may progress to a state where they require and depend on the care of others for a long period of time. Long-term care facilities or homes for the elderly are far from the only solution to this situation. On the contrary, if your personal situation allows it, the ideal situation is to care for the elderly at home. This option is, of course, advantageous for the state, but it is primarily the seniors themselves who appreciate it. They can remain in familiar surroundings, surrounded by loved ones, without having to worry about health care neglect.

Home care

Home care services can be prescribed by the attending physician after an examination . Of course, this must not be a medical condition that requires hospitalisation. Based on the examination, the doctor will recommend the number of visits to the patient and the goal of care, which is then developed in the form of a care plan. This service is fully covered by the health insurance.

Care allowance

If you are caring for a family member over the age of one year who is dependent on the help of another person because of a long-term health condition, the care allowance (formerly known as the helplessness allowance) can make things easier for you. However, this is not paid to the person caring for you, but directly to the person in need, who decides whether to pay relatives, a carer or social services for help. Typically, this institution is used to care for parents who are unable to do so.

Theamount of the allowance is determined according to the degree of dependence and whether or not a residential social service is used at the same time. The possible range is currently between CZK 880 and CZK 19 200 per month. Although it is most often used for home care for the elderly, it can of course be used for the care of anyone who needs it. An application for the care allowance must be completed and submitted to the relevant branch of the Labour Office, according to the place of residence of the applicant. If the person concerned is unable to complete the application themselves, an agent will complete the application.