Nursing benefit

What it means

Nursing benefit is paid by the Social Insurance Agency to an employee caring for a sick child or a dependent relative. The employer pays no wage for that time.

Short-term nursing benefit is capped in days; the long-term version covers care after hospitalisation or in terminal illness and lasts considerably longer.

Unlike sick leave, nursing benefit involves no first days paid by the employer: the Social Insurance Agency pays from day one. It requires sickness insurance, so there is no entitlement, for example, under an agreement on which sickness insurance is not paid.

How it works in practice

For the company it is an absence recorded in attendance and reflected in payroll as a period without income. The Agency assesses entitlement; the employer only confirms data.

When planning a team with young children, these absences are budgeted like sick leave. The answer is cover arrangements and written procedures, not complaints about flu season.

In a month with nursing benefit the employee’s gross pay is lower and contributions are due only on what was actually paid. With a monthly salary the pro rata share for the care days is not paid, and those days are kept separately in the payroll record because the Agency may check them later.

What to watch out for

Parents may alternate, but not at will within a single case. Incorrectly reported periods lead to repaying the benefit and correcting payroll returns for the months involved.

During nursing benefit the employee should not work, from home included. If the company hands out tasks during that time and pays wages for them, the benefit for those days is not due and must be repaid after an inspection, straining relations with both the employee and the Agency.