Probably, every employee at least once in his life held a sick leave in his hands. The nature of man did not reward absolute health, at least once a year or two you have to take a sick leave in order to properly take care of yourself. We must not forget about women whose pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood are also reliably protected by labor law. It turns out that care for treatment for one reason or another is a completely standard situation. At first glance it seems: what can be complicated here? In fact, accountants often face various difficulties. Consider how the sick leave is considered competently and what you need to know for this.
What is a temporary disability certificate?
A sick leave is an official document issued by a medical institution as a confirmation of a citizen’s disability. You can issue it only by the number that you received a request for medical help (turn up at the clinic, hospital or call a doctor at home). The sheet reflects information about the patient, his place of work and position, date of treatment and diagnosis code. As treatment progresses, notes are made about the extension or closure of the sick-list. The document is fixed with the official stamp.
After recovery, the employee must go to work on the next business day after the closing date of the sick leave. The medical form is handed over to the accountant. The employee receives the allowance due some time after the calculations and accruals.
Who has the right to "go on sick leave"?
Of course, no one forbids a citizen to seek medical help and to be on outpatient or inpatient treatment. The only question is whether everyone can count on compensation for the earnings that would have been received if not for the disease? The main and quite obvious condition is to be officially employed. Only an employment contract drawn up in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and providing a citizen with a “social package” can 100% guarantee payments on a temporary disability sheet.
If desired, an individual has the right to independently transfer the amounts to the Social Insurance Fund, which forms the same experience affecting the payment of hospital benefits. This is most relevant for entrepreneurs and small businesses that work exclusively "for themselves."
The second requirement, of course, is the provision of the original medical document confirming the fact of illness and the inability to perform official duties. After fulfilling these two conditions, the employee gives it to the accountant, who asks the question: “What is the sick leave?”
For what cases a disability document is drawn up?
You can count on such a benefit only in cases established by law. Not every disease or treatment (especially preventive) will be the basis for the payment of benefits and the official pass of working days. A sick leave sheet is opened if:
- an employee (including a non-resident of the Russian Federation) fell ill or was injured, and therefore cannot fulfill his duties (this includes cases such as termination of pregnancy or installation of a prosthesis);
- a child under the age of 7-15 years old or another member of the family who needs care is sick;
- preschool is closed for quarantine;
- sanatorium-preventive procedures are appointed as the final stage of treatment;
- the employee who was dismissed from the enterprise no more than 30 days before his illness and in the absence of a new position fell ill;
- the employee goes on maternity leave (relying on maternity benefits).
In all these cases, a formally arranged citizen has every right to receive compensation for his earnings for “sick days”. The exception is only those injuries and injuries that have been received as a result of alcohol and drug intoxication or caused specially.
Who pays the allowance?
The question of who and when has the right to open a disability sheet and receive the money due is clarified and closed. But what happens after the paper is submitted to the accounting department? How is sick leave considered, and most importantly, who pays the bills? 3 years ago, the obligation to pay disability benefits fell on the shoulders of the employer. Of course, the company then also received compensation from the Social Insurance Fund, which was completely equal to the amount paid on the sick-list.
After 2013 and to the present day, the payment procedure has changed a bit. Now, the FSS is directly and completely responsible for this process. All that is required of the company is to prepare and send the necessary documents.
The allowance is assigned from the first day indicated on the sick leave. In this case, the payment of the first three days is the responsibility of the employer. The amount for the rest of the period is transferred by the FSS.
How sick days are considered: rules and features
The amount due to the employee on the sick leave is directly affected by the length of service and the total wage, which is calculated for a certain billing period. In this regard, a number of rules and computational features arise. At the same enterprise, two employees and even for the same term can go on sick leave at the same time. However, the final payments received by them will be different.
How is sick leave considered correct? Follow the following sequence of calculations:
- Determine the billing period.
- Calculate earnings for a specified period.
- Calculate the average daily amount of earnings.
- Calculate the daily rate of payment, taking into account the experience.
- Set the total amount payable.
The definition of hospital payments still takes into account the length of service. It is divided into three time categories: less than 5.5 years, 5.5–8.5 years, more than 8.5 years. An incapable employee is entitled to 60, 80 and 100%, respectively, of the above specified length of service from the withdrawn result of the hospital allowance. Do not confuse insurance and seniority. In fact, an individual could work for 5 years or more, but the employer in bad faith fulfilled his obligations to transfer funds to the Social Insurance Fund, in connection with which the insurance experience is much shorter than the labor period.
In cases where the employee went on sick leave without having served six months, the total amount of payments should not exceed 1 minimum wage (from January 1, 2016 it is 6204 rubles).
Billing Period Definition
How is sick leave considered? The first step, regardless of the reason for its discovery and other source data, is the determination of the settlement period. For the payment of temporary disability benefits, its value is 2 previous years after the date of illness. Consider an example of what is considered sick leave in 2016. The billing period will be 2015 and 2014. It is not necessary to exclude anything from the considered time. The number of days according to legislative acts is taken as 731. The right to replace periods with earlier ones is granted only when the employee was on maternity leave or maternity leave.
Another question that worries both employees and novice accountants is: “How is sick leave considered on holidays?” Payments on the sheet of temporary disability are calculated for the entire period of the illness, including holidays and weekends.
Calculation of average earnings and total payments
The next step in calculating sickness benefits is to determine your average earnings. Knowing the revenue base for two years, it is easy to calculate the average daily payments. It is worth noting that the amount of annual wages has a limit. In 2015, it amounted to 670 thousand rubles. If the revenue base exceeds the established amount, the calculation should use the limit value according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Calculation of average daily earnings is extremely simple to perform: income for the billing period is divided by 731.
Multiplying the number obtained by the insurance period, we find the amount of the due temporary disability benefit for one day. Increasing the amount of payment by the number of days of illness, we determine the total sick leave payment. How compensation is considered for the period of the illness in the standard case has been clarified. Consider other situations.
Using the minimum wage
Not every employee has an accumulated work experience of two years. Sometimes it is not possible to find out the amount of previous income. In the end, everything happens for the first time: the beginning of a career, behind a penny of official earnings, now what, to get sick at work? Just for this case, the minimum income rate is used. The value applies to citizens whose daily earnings are less than the established. How is it considered a hospital minimum wage?
As the income base, use the set value. In 2016, it equals 6204 p. This is the minimum wage for one month. To find out the income for 2 years, the value is multiplied by 24 months, and then the payment in days is calculated by dividing by 731. How are hospital days calculated with the given initial data? Let's make calculations:
- 6204 × 24 ÷ 731 = 203.688 p. for one day.
If the employee has insurance experience, then the value is increased, and then the total amount of payments is calculated according to the days on the sick leave. Suppose, the experience is 9 years, and the number of days is 12 (including 3 days off). The calculations will continue as follows:
- 203.688 × 12 = 2445 p. - the total amount for 12 days of temporary disability (weekends are considered sick leave).
In cases of less insurance experience, the average daily payment will be calculated in accordance with the interest due.
How is maternity sick?
The calculation starts all from the same points: the average daily wage according to the income base for the previous 2 years. The number of days of maternity leave ranges from 140 to 194. In this case, earlier years may be taken as the calculation period. How are maternity sick leave considered if there was no official earnings? The minimum wage rate comes to the rescue again. The average daily minimum wage is used. According to the calculations made above, it is already known that for payments in 2016 it equals 203.688 rubles.
In addition, the following rules for opening a sick leave and paying for it must be observed:
- a woman has the right to go on maternity leave for a period of 30 weeks (for multiple pregnancy - at 28 weeks);
- “maternity” allowance is accrued within 10 working days from the date of the sick leave and application;
- the amount of funds paid must not be less than the average daily minimum wage multiplied by 24 (4889 p.) and exceed 718 thousand p .;
- length of service does not affect the amount of the maternity allowance;
- combination workers have the right to receive maternity at two places of employment, if the work experience in each of them is 2 years or more.
To accrue benefits, the employer must make payments to the Social Insurance Fund. PI should take care of this in advance. On this, the features of what is considered sick leave during pregnancy end.
Caring for a sick child
The calculation rules and the sequence of actions remain the same. But it is necessary to take into account the fact that, unlike the payment of incapacity for work due to illness of the employee himself, the illness of a child or other family member is not paid for the entire period. The amount of compensation is affected by age and disease. What is considered sick child care? The table shows data on the number of paid incapable days.
Sick pay due to illness of a child or other relativesAge | Duration of one sick leave | The maximum number of paid days per calendar year |
up to 7 years | Not limited | Outpatient and inpatient treatment together with the child is paid for a period of not more than 60 days. If the care is associated with a disease indicated in the list of the Ministry of Health of Russia, 90 days are due. In case of quarantine in a child care facility, sick leave is paid for the entire period |
7-15 years old | No more than 15 days | Payment is made for 45 days spent on sick leave to care for a child. If the disease is related to HIV infection or oncology, the Social Insurance Fund pays benefits for all days of work |
Disabled child over 15 years old | Not limited | Funds are transferred for 120 days of sick leave to care for a disabled child or stay with him in a hospital |
Other relatives | No more than 7 days | FSS pays 30 days for a disability certificate due to a relative’s illness |
Outpatient treatment is paid in full only the first 10 days, all subsequent sick leave payments are reduced by 50%.
Sanatorium-resort treatment (except for those suffering from tuberculosis), as prescribed by the doctor as a continuation of the sick leave, is carried out for the entire period, but not more than 24 calendar days.
Example of calculating temporary disability benefits
We will consider in detail how maternity sick leave is considered. For the initial data we take the following information: employee A. in the summer of 2016 goes on maternity leave for 140 days. Revenues for the previous two periods amounted to 605 thousand rubles. Calculate the amount of maternity benefits. Let's start the decision in stages:
- The income base for the billing period of the allowance is known. We calculate the amount of average daily earnings: 605 000 ÷ 731 = 827.6 p.
- Find the total amount of benefits: 410.4 × 140 = 115 869 p.
In the event that the average daily income was less than 203.688 rubles, or if the income base for the last two years could not be determined, the calculations would look like this: 203.688 × 140 = 28 516 rubles.
Sick leave: trouble or reward?
One of the unusual cases is the illness of an employee who has gone on vacation. It seems that you don’t need to go to work, but there is no rest as such due to poor health. How is sick leave considered? If this is a regular annual paid vacation - do not worry. If you have a temporary disability sheet, the benefit will be paid. In addition, the employee has the right to postpone his vacation to another time or extend it by the number of incapable days.
Do not forget that the payment of sick leave, both on vacation and on a general basis, is not made in cases:
- incidents of alcohol or drug intoxication;
- intentionally harming one’s own health.
If the leave was taken without maintenance or during the examination session, the sick leave will be paid, but this will not affect the number of days of annual leave.
"Payment of sick leave is considered?" - One of the most frequent topics of concern not only to employees, but also to employers. Everyone cares about their own benefit: the first needs compensation for health reasons, and the second is not interested in paying social benefits in vain. When providing a sick leave and the absence of violations of its "opening - closing", the accounting department of the enterprise is obliged to make the calculation in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. A prerequisite is official employment and the availability of monthly contributions to the FSS.