Who is entitled to and how is sick leave paid for caring for a sick relative?

Is sick leave required to care for a child?

A working parent (guardian, custodian, other relative) has the right to receive a paid certificate of incapacity for work if a child becomes ill or injured. Detailed information about the age at which sick leave for child care is granted and how long it lasts in different situations is contained in Order No. 925n of the Ministry of Health of Russia dated September 1, 2020, and the payment rules are contained in Federal Law No. 255-FZ of December 29, 2006.

From 01/01/2021, benefits for temporary disability to care for a child are transferred from the Social Insurance Fund from the first day of illness.

From 09/01/2021, the procedure for how sick leave is paid for caring for a child up to 7 years inclusive (up to 8 years of age) has changed - based on 100% of the average earnings of a parent or other person who was with a sick minor and received a release from work. The limit on the maximum amount and the limitation on paid days remains the same.

In other cases, when caring for a child over 7 years old, the previous rules remain the same - the amount of temporary disability benefits is calculated from the average salary for the last 2 years of the parent (guardian, relative), depending on his total work experience:

• employees with less than 5 years of experience are paid a benefit in the amount of 60% of earnings;
• 80% will be paid to those with 5 to 8 years of experience;
• if the experience is more than 8 years, they will be paid in the amount of 100% of average earnings.

Such payments are issued for the entire period of treatment in a hospital. If a child is treated on an outpatient basis, then the benefit for the first 10 days is paid taking into account the length of service (from 60 to 100 percent of average earnings), and for subsequent days - half of the calculated amount. But from 09/01/2021 these rules do not apply to parents and guardians of children under 8 years of age. For them, the entire period of illness during outpatient treatment is also paid in the amount of 100% of average earnings.

Part-timers: to pay or not to pay

If a parent, guardian or relative is an external shareholder, he or she has the right to claim disability benefits from each employer. That is, both at the main place of work and part-time.

Key condition: the main thing is that employers pay insurance premiums for temporary disability and maternity for the employee during the last two years (preceding the child’s illness). Important exceptions:

1. If during the allotted period (two years) the parent did not change jobs, then he draws up two sick leaves from the attending physician at once. One is for the main employer, the second is for the employer in a combined position. The number of BL depends on the number of official places of work.
2. If jobs have changed completely (new employers within two years), then only one sick leave certificate is issued. It is provided for payment at a new place of work (main or combined). In order for payments from all policyholders to be taken into account when calculating benefits, you must provide certificate No. 182n to the accounting department along with a sick leave certificate.
3. If the employers have changed, but not completely, then the parent has the right to choose which of them to take sick leave from. There are no strict requirements. You should not forget about certificate 182n, it will allow the accountant to correctly calculate the benefit.

IMPORTANT!

If the employee did not know that certificate 182n should be provided to the accountant for calculation, the document is allowed to be submitted later. For example, the main employee worked part-time temporarily (the employment contract expired and the part-time relationship ended). But the accountant of the main employer did not know about this. As a result, sick leave benefits were accrued only for the main position. Therefore, if an employee presents a certificate in Form 182n from a part-time employer, the accountant is obliged to recalculate the benefit. The document must be presented no later than 3 years.

Please note that restrictions on the duration of illness of children for payment are determined for each policyholder individually.

How many days of child care will be paid?

It is legally established how many days a year sick leave is paid to care for a child - it depends on his age. A working parent caring for a child under 7 years of age is entitled to paid leave to care for the child for up to 60 days a year. If the sheet is issued for a longer period, then the parent is not fired, since the reason for absence from work is valid. But in this case, payment in excess of 60 days in total per year is not made.

If the age of the sick child is from 7 to 15 years, then the parent is entitled to a one-time paid sick leave certificate lasting 15 days. In total, benefits are paid for no longer than 45 days during the year. If a minor requires longer-term outpatient treatment, no payment is made for days in excess of the limit, and the employee has the right to apply for unpaid leave or remain on unpaid sick leave.

If your child is between 15 and 18 years old, then paid leave is issued at a time only for 7 days, and in total - no more than 30 days a year. And it doesn’t matter whether the treatment is carried out inpatient or outpatient, that is, at home with visits to medical institutions.

There are exceptions: if a child is disabled, has cancer or HIV, he will be allowed to be cared for for a longer period of time (see subparagraphs 3-5 of paragraph 5 of Article 6 of Federal Law 255-FZ).

To understand how long it is allowed to care for a child and for how long sick leave is required for caring for a child under 7 years old in 2021 and older, we have prepared a table that shows the maximum periods of sick leave depending on the age of the child and the features of payments.

Parents, grandparents and guardians should know that each of them is entitled to a paid certificate of incapacity for work to provide assistance to a sick child. And the above standards apply to everyone separately. The legislation has a positive answer to the question of whether a grandmother can take sick leave to care for her grandson - it is allowed not only for relatives, but also for other persons. If necessary, it is allowed to replace each other if the minor’s illness is prolonged.

But keep in mind: they do not always provide sick leave and pay benefits at the same time. For example, if a mother is on leave to care for another child or on maternity leave, then she will not be provided with a certificate of incapacity for work to treat a sick child. But the legislation determines whether a husband can take sick leave to care for a child if his wife falls ill on maternity leave—he or other relatives (grandparents) have the right to do this.

What has changed in sick leave for pregnancy and childbirth

The new procedure clarified the duration of the certificate of incapacity for multiple pregnancies, if the birth occurred at 22 - 30 weeks. In this case, sick leave will be issued for 194 calendar days.

Women living or working in populated areas exposed to radioactive contamination are entitled to sick leave for 176 calendar days during childbirth in the 22nd to 27th week of pregnancy. If the pregnancy is multiple - for 200 days.

They clarified that sick leave will be issued for the entire period of incapacity, but not less than 3 days:

• when terminating a pregnancy up to 21 full weeks;
• at the birth of a dead fetus;
• at the birth of a live fetus that did not survive the first 6 full days (168 hours).

If a child was born at a gestational age of less than 22 weeks and survived the first 6 full days, sick leave will be issued for 156 calendar days. At the birth of two or more children, a certificate of incapacity for work will be issued for 194 days.

How long will they be allowed to care for sick parents and other relatives?

Medical institutions issue sick leave to care for sick parents and other relatives. It will be possible to receive temporary disability benefits if persons who, according to the Family Code of the Russian Federation, are family members, are unwell:

• spouses;
• parents;
• children;
• adoptive parents and adopted children;
• persons bound by rights and obligations arising from marriage, kinship and adoption, including grandparents, grandchildren, brothers and sisters, stepfathers, stepmothers, stepdaughters and stepsons.

When taking out sick leave to care for an elderly person, indicate the degree of relationship:

• 38 - mother;
• 39 - father;
• 40 - guardian;
• 41 - trustee;
• 42 - another relative caring for a sick relative.

The attending physician has the right to issue sick leave so that a working citizen can stay at home and care for the patient for a period of 3 to 7 days. If necessary, you will have to take the remaining days at your own expense or as part of your annual leave.

The law specifies for how long sick leave is issued in 2021 for caring for sick parents over 80 years old - one certificate for caring for an adult sick person will be paid for a maximum of 7 days. The maximum duration of the paid period per year is 30 days. And remember: staying at home and caring for a chronically ill person during a period of remission is not prohibited.

Results

Many companies are afraid to hire women with children because they believe that the cost of paying average wages during sick leave will fall on the employer - this is not the case. Payment for certificates of incapacity for work is reimbursed by the Social Insurance Fund. The state regularly reviews the rules for paying sick leave and expands the list of diseases for which days of incapacity for work are paid in full. In order not to miss important changes in the rules of social insurance for employees, read our “Salaries and Personnel” section.

Sources:

• Labor Code of the Russian Federation
• Law “On compulsory social insurance in case of temporary disability and in connection with maternity” dated December 29, 2006 N 255-FZ

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It is allowed to take turns caring for the patient

The Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation, in a letter dated July 28, 2016 No. 02-09-14/15, recalled the possibility of issuing sick leave for child care alternately to different family members (see the procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work, approved by order of the Ministry of Health of Russia dated September 1, 2020 No. 925n).

Each family member is issued a certificate of incapacity for work as a primary one, since the insured event is not the illness of a family member, but the temporary disability of the insured person due to the need to care for a relative. The sheet issued to another family member who previously cared for the patient is closed.

So, if a mother has exhausted all days of sick leave due for payment, she has the right to transfer the care of a sick child to the father or to a working grandfather, grandmother, aunt, sister, brother, or other relative.

ConsultantPlus experts looked at how to explain to an employee why the allowance for caring for a sick child is less than the salary. Use these instructions for free.

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If one child in the family falls ill, and at the same time symptoms of the disease appear in the second, then in this case one sick leave certificate is issued for two children, where the full name of each child, age and period of illness are entered.

If there are, for example, three children in a family, and they all get sick at the same time, then in this case you will need to issue two certificates of incapacity for work. The fact is that the sick leave form has only two columns where you can indicate the details of the family member who is being cared for.