Sick leave in 2017: how to calculate and pay

In case of temporary disability and in connection with maternity, citizens of the Russian Federation, foreign citizens and stateless persons permanently or temporarily residing in the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as foreign citizens and stateless persons temporarily staying in the Russian Federation, except for highly qualified specialists, are subject to compulsory social insurance.

Temporary disability benefits are paid not only in cases of illness or injury to the employee. It is required for follow-up treatment of an employee in a Russian sanatorium-resort institution immediately after inpatient treatment in the direction of a medical institution, prosthetics in an inpatient specialized institution, if the employee is in quarantine, caring for a sick family member and caring for a child under seven years of age who is in quarantine, or for another incapacitated family member.

Payment for sick leave in 2021 in case of illness or injury is carried out: the first three days - from the employer’s funds, the remaining days - from the Social Insurance Fund. In case of registration of sick leave to care for a sick relative, undergoing treatment in a sanatorium, due to quarantine, payment for sick leave in full is carried out from the Social Insurance Fund.

General provisions

The current regulatory framework regulates the following grounds for issuing sick leave:

illness or injury that led to temporary disability;

quarantine
installation of a prosthesis
treatment in a sanatorium
pregnancy

Registration of sick leave in 2021 is carried out within the established procedure:

Mandatory examination by a doctor, which confirms the basis for issuing the sheet.
Based on the results of the examination, the doctor can issue a sick leave certificate, which is opened from the date of application to the medical institution.

The period for which sick leave is issued depends on several parameters. The deadline, which is issued at the medical institution, is 30 days. After the first visit, sick leave is issued for a period that cannot exceed 10 days. After which the validity period can be extended as a result of a repeat visit. In addition, a special commission can extend sick leave up to 12 months if the illness or injury has serious consequences.

Depending on the reason for filing sick leave in 2021, the current standards determine the following maximum periods:

care for a child in case of illness - from 30 to 60 days depending on age
disability – 5 months
pregnancy – 140 days

How employers can prepare

To work with electronic sick leave certificates, an organization will need a personal account at cabinets.fss.ru. In your personal account, you will be able to receive a notification about the receipt of an electronic sick leave and electronically fill out the “To be completed by the employer” section.

The policyholder’s personal electronic account performs the following functions:
obtaining data from a new electronic certificate of incapacity for work (ELN), closed in a medical organization;
viewing electronic certificates of incapacity for work, printing;
entering the policyholder's information into existing electronic registration documents, incl. with more than 3 periods of incapacity;
Export of ELN data into an xml file with the possibility of subsequent loading of this file into the policyholder’s software for creating and signing registers for sending to the Social Insurance Fund
searching and viewing registers of certificates of incapacity for work submitted to the Social Insurance Fund;
search and view benefits paid by the Social Insurance Fund as part of direct payments. The search is carried out by full name, SNILS and benefit status;
viewing the log of data exchange between the Policyholder and the Social Insurance Fund, with the ability to save requests and received responses to an xml file
viewing and uploading to an xml file (for further processing in the Policyholder’s software) a list of errors when checking the register and benefits;
generation of requests to the Social Insurance Fund (regarding direct payments), with the ability to search by number, topic, status and date of the request submitted;
viewing notices generated by the Social Insurance Fund employee when working with the register and benefits;
submitting an application for an appointment with the regional office of the Social Insurance Fund (on the issue of consultations regarding direct payments).

At the same time, employers have the right not to open a personal account and not to connect to the electronic exchange of sick leave. But in this case, employees of such an insurer will only be able to receive “paper” certificates of incapacity for work. Electronic sick leave will not be available to them, since employees from the Social Insurance Fund will not find the policyholder in a single information database.

If the clinic and employer participate in an electronic exchange, the employee will be able to decide whether to receive a paper or electronic ballot.

Mandatory details of the electronic certificate of incapacity for work are, in particular, information containing the employee’s INN and SNILS, the name of the employing organization, information on average earnings for calculating benefits, doctors’ signatures, etc. If the certificate is issued for more than 15 days, then it is also necessary signatures of the chairman of the medical commission and the chief physician of the medical organization (clause 11 of the Procedure approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n).

Sick leave payments in 2021: essential features

Payment for sick leave in 2021 is made from two sources: employer funds (first 3 days) and Social Insurance Fund (starting from the 4th day). If the reason for registration is child care, then financing comes exclusively from the Social Insurance Fund.

In the following cases, the employee will not be able to obtain sick leave:

the established hospital regime is violated
activities are carried out within the framework of a contract
if the injury was sustained as a result of an unlawful act
if an employee is suspended from performing duties or carries out actions without appropriate permissions
if sick leave is issued after the end of the illness

Electronic sick leave – a benefit for everyone

The transition to an electronic form of sick leave should combine information on periods of incapacity for work for all employees into a single database. The benefits of the innovation are obvious, here are some of its advantages:

saving not only money on the production of paper forms, but also time spent on sending paper documents,
simplification of the procedure for filling out sick leave forms, reducing the number of errors when filling them out,
saving doctors time and reducing the volume of paperwork,
the opportunity to check whether the electronic sick leave certificate has been drawn up correctly, and, if necessary, request corrections without a second visit to the medical organization by the employee - just go to the policyholder’s “personal account”,
the employer gets the opportunity to track when an employee who did not go to work took sick leave and when he should go to work,
the employer is not required to send paper sick leave to the Social Insurance Fund,
electronic sick leave cannot be lost or destroyed,
such a document cannot be falsified, which means it does not have to be checked for authenticity,
It is easier for the Social Insurance Fund to control and analyze expenses, as well as to eliminate cases of fraud.

At the same time, the employer is still free to choose the form of document flow and may not switch to electronic sick leave. The paper form of the certificate of incapacity for work remains valid along with the electronic one after 07/01/2017.

Nuances of calculations and payments

Calculation of sick leave in 2021 is carried out according to the following algorithm:

Fixation of the total salary that the employee received over the last two years
Calculation of average daily income. To do this, the total income is divided into 730 days (for a leap year - 731 days)
The result obtained is multiplied by the number of working days during which the employee was on sick leave
The length of service coefficient is applied, which is determined based on the following principles:

if the length of service is up to 6 months, then for each month of sick leave the employee will receive more than 1 minimum wage
for 3-5 years of experience K 0.6 is applied
for 6-8 years of experience K 0.8 is applied
if the experience exceeds 8 years, K 1.0 is applied

The maximum amount of payment to an employee during the year cannot exceed RUB 270,450.

Advantages and disadvantages of ELN

There is only one drawback in ENL - potential difficulties in remote areas of the country where access to the Internet is difficult. The advantages are obvious:

the impossibility of manual data entry will eliminate errors and fraud;
enhanced protection of confidential information;
there is no need to store paper sick leave certificates and present them during checks;
electronic form minimizes loss or damage;
To check your electronic sick leave, you just need to log in to the system.

The most important thing is that the introduction of new technology simplifies document flow and saves the time and effort of HR staff. Transferring paper documents to the Social Insurance Fund, authentication, storage - all this will become unnecessary.

Calculation example

The total amount of the employee’s salary for the last two years is 860 thousand rubles. In this case, the work experience reaches 9 years and sick leave is issued for 10 days. In this case, the payment amount will be:

860,000 / 730 x 10 x 1 = 11,780.82 rubles.

The amount calculated for sick leave is paid after the employee returns to the workplace at the next salary payment. Personal income tax will be withheld from this amount.

In addition, it is worth considering the following nuances when calculating sick leave in 2021:

If the injury was sustained at work or the employee suffered an occupational disease, then the sick leave payment will be 270 thousand rubles
If an employee falls ill during vacation, he must contact a medical facility. In this case, sick leave will be open from the first day of going to work or transferred to another day in agreement with the employer
Sick leave for pregnancy or child care is paid exclusively from the Social Insurance Fund. In this case, the duration of sick leave is regulated at the legislative level.
If an employee is a part-time worker and works in several companies at once, then he will be able to apply for sick leave in each organization
If the time interval between the termination of the employment contract and the employee’s illness is less than 30 days, then sick leave is issued with K 0.6 of the average salary at the corresponding place of work.

Payment of sick leave next year is carried out at the expense of the employer and funds from the Social Insurance Fund. To register, you will need to contact a medical institution and obtain the appropriate certificate. When calculating the payment, the following parameters are taken into account:

total income for the last two years
number of days on sick leave
work experience

Memo on registering sick leave for an employer

if the employee does not have the opportunity to bring a certificate of earnings from his previous place of work, then, upon his application, a request for the necessary information can be sent to the territorial body of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation;
if the employee provides a certificate of the amount of earnings after the benefit has already been calculated, recalculate it;
it is recommended that temporary disability benefits be issued simultaneously with an advance payment or salary, depending on which payment is closer;
do not forget about periods when benefits are not paid, for example, the employee fell ill, during unpaid leave;
The first three days of incapacity for work are paid for by the employer from its own funds, and starting from the fourth - from the Social Insurance Fund.

Calculation of sick leave: fundamental principles and changes in 2021

The calculation of sick leave is based on a number of key rules that every accountant should follow. These include the following:

Payment for sick leave in 2021 in case of illness or injury is made from 2 sources: the first 3 days are paid from the employer’s funds, the remaining days from the social insurance fund. If sick leave is issued to care for a sick relative, due to quarantine, or the need to undergo rehabilitation in a sanatorium, then it is paid in full from the Social Insurance Fund.
Calculation of sick leave is carried out on calendar days falling on the full period of illness, with the exception of days when the employee was suspended from official duties and was not entitled to wages for these days. A list of such exceptions can be found in Article 9 of Law No. 255-FZ of December 29, 2006.
The amount of disability benefits payable is calculated based on the employee’s average salary. This indicator is determined for the previous 2 years. If a person has been working at a given place of work recently, then the data provided by his previous employers is taken into account. To calculate average earnings, the summed salary for 2 years is divided by 730.
The amount of the benefit is directly related to the length of the insurance period. If it does not exceed 5 years, sick leave is calculated based on 60% of average earnings. For more than 5 years of experience, but not more than 8, the ratio of 80% of the average salary is applied. And finally, with more than 8 years of experience, the amount of sick leave is equal to average earnings. Moreover, starting from the 11th day of sick leave, benefits are accrued in the amount of ½ of the average earnings, no matter how long the insurance period you have.
The calculation of sick leave in 2021 is based on all payments that were made in favor of the employee and from which the employer transferred insurance premiums for the previous 2 years.

As you can see, changes in the calculation of sick leave in 2021 are practically insignificant. To illustrate the application of these principles, we will try to show how to calculate sick leave in 2017 using a specific example.

Let’s assume that a certain Marina Nikolaevna Ivanova, having 7 years of insurance experience, fell ill between January 16 and January 25, 2021. Accordingly, guided by the above rules, to calculate average earnings we need the period 2015 and 2021. According to accounting data, her total salary for 2015 was 480,000 rubles, and for 2021 - 520,000 rubles. Thus, over the previous 2 years she earned a total of 1,000,000 rubles. Please note that this amount takes into account all payments in favor of M.N. Ivanova, for which the company where she works transferred insurance contributions to extra-budgetary funds.

So, the average earnings of Ivanova M.N. is 1,369.86 rubles (1,000,000/730). Considering that her insurance experience is more than 5 but less than 8 years, we use a coefficient of 0.8 (80%). Thus, to calculate benefits for 10 calendar days of sick leave, average earnings are used at the rate of 1,095.89 rubles. (RUB 1,369.86 x 80%). Accordingly, payment of sick leave to Ivanova M.N. will be 10,958.90 rubles. (RUB 1,095.89 x 10 calendar days).

It is very convenient to use a free online calculator for calculating patients, which is offered by various services on the Internet. By entering the information necessary for the calculation, within a few seconds you will receive a calculation of the benefit amount in accordance with all current rules and restrictions, as well as links to legislative acts.

How is sick leave paid in 2021 if earnings are less than the minimum wage?

It happens that an employee who finds himself on sick leave has no earnings during the billing period, or it is extremely small, not even reaching the minimum wage. In this case, the calculation of sick leave is based precisely on the minimum wage. Let us give a corresponding example of calculating sick leave in 2017.

So, let’s assume that M.N. Ivanova, who participated in our previous calculation, did not work in the calculation period of 2015 and 2021. It is also not possible to replace these years with some others, since she was not on maternity leave, but simply did not work during these years. An employee fell ill in July 2021 for a period of 10 calendar days.

In this case, you will have to rely on the minimum wage, which will be 7,800 rubles from the second half of 2021. We calculate the average earnings by multiplying the minimum wage by 24 months and dividing by 730. Its amount will be 256.44 rubles. Now we multiply this amount by 80% based on the existing insurance experience and get the amount of daily earnings for calculating sick leave of 205.15 rubles. Accordingly, sick leave payment for 10 calendar days will be 2,051.50 rubles.

What you need to know about sick leave

To the employee:

You must bring sick leave within 6 months, or it will not be paid unless there are good reasons for it.
If the employee did not work in the previous 2 years, the calculation will be based on the minimum wage, which is 6,204 rubles.
If the employee has been on maternity or child care leave for the previous 2 years, then she has the right to change the pay period. She should write a request for a replacement.
If after dismissal the employee falls ill within 1 month, then the employer is obliged to pay 60% of the average earnings for the entire period of illness.

Important: payment of a certificate of incapacity for work after dismissal (the reason does not matter) is made in case of illness only of the employee himself, and not of his relatives.

To the employer:

If it is impossible to obtain information about the salary from the previous place of work, you should send a request to the Pension Fund based on his application.
If information from a previous job is provided after the calculation, a recalculation should be made, but no later than after 3 years.
Payment for a sheet with a note indicating that the employee has violated the medical regime. institution is carried out: until the moment of violation according to the general rules, after based on the minimum wage.
The benefit is not paid if you fall ill while on vacation, including at your own expense or during the period of arrest.
If an employee was dismissed during a period of illness, then the calculation is made according to the general rules.
There are restrictions on how long it can take to care for sick relatives.

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What are the limits on disability benefits?

Current legislation limits the maximum amount of average earnings, based on which benefits are determined. It is stipulated that the amount that serves as the basis for calculating benefits for each year should not exceed the limit of the base for calculating insurance premiums in the same year. Considering that in 2015 this limit was 670,000.00 rubles, in 2016 - 718,000 rubles, dividing the amount for 2 years by 730, we get the average earnings limit for 2017 at the level of 1901.37 rubles. The FSS simply will not accept payments for a larger amount.