Irina Korsakova Assistance policy: how to use sick leave 08/21/2024, 08:13

If you are officially employed, you are entitled to paid sick leave. However, the amount of payment does not always meet expectations, as it depends on the length of service and average earnings. There is a way that will allow you to protect yourself from loss of income and receive additional financial assistance at the most unexpected moment of your life.

As a rule, employees whose employers contribute to the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) can apply for sick leave (“sick leave”). Individual entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals receive compensation only if they sign a voluntary insurance contract.

According to research by SberLife Insurance, 75 percent of Russians take official sick leave to receive treatment in peace, but a third reported that they do not do so because of reduced pay for working days during sick leave.

The amount of sick leave payments depends directly on the employee’s official length of service and earnings. If the employee has less than five years of experience, the payment will be 60% of the average salary. For five to eight years of experience, the payment will be up to 80% of the average salary, and for more than eight years of experience, up to 100%.

However, there are cases when the amount of sick pay may exceed the required norm. One of them is an additional payment made in connection with an insured event under the voluntary health insurance (VHI) policy. Most often, such events involve injuries or particularly dangerous diseases. The insurance company records the insured event and makes an additional payment on the temporary disability certificate. At the same time, you should familiarize yourself with the full list of insurance benefits under the VHI policy in advance.

The second additional payment method is optional life insurance. It allows you to receive daily payments and in some insurance programs you can even determine the size yourself.

The amount is transferred to the client’s account by the insurance company. Let’s take a closer look at how this alternative financial protection tool works.

Not everyone knows that temporary disability can also be an insured event under voluntary life insurance. By insuring your health against this risk, you can receive payment not only for illness (including especially dangerous diseases), injuries, but also for the care of a child or family member.

But it is important to take into account two points. Health risks are divided into two large groups according to their magnitude (danger). The most serious ones – for example, detection of cancer or cardiovascular diseases (heart attack or stroke) – are provided in extended programs. And if we are talking about applying for regular sick leave, then you can use the basic program, which includes this risk along with others. It is important to know: if a disease belonging to a particularly dangerous category has already been diagnosed, then there is no insurance payment for sick leave for it. If there is a seasonal cold that has not been treated or has recurred after some time, payment can be made repeatedly according to the terms of the contract.

Supplementary insurance coverage in case of temporary disability has no restrictions on the status of citizens and work, for example, both for people with disabilities and susceptible to autoimmune diseases, and for absolutely healthy people. This is especially true for couples with children or elderly parents, single mothers and fathers, etc.

Life and health insurance during sick leave is included in a variety of products, such as credit or risk life insurance programs. It all depends on individual needs.

The first way is if you are a consumer credit debtor or credit card holder. In these cases, sick leave insurance will support the debtor if he cannot make the required payments in the prescribed amount. For example, if his earnings are reduced due to sick leave.

Insurance protection for consumer credit can only be activated at registration, and in the case of a credit card, at any time. In many modern financial institutions it is convenient to do this online in a mobile application, because when you connect the selected insurance option, you can instantly see the cost of insurance and the amount of future payments.

The second most suitable means of protection during sick leave, regardless of credit and other obligations, is health insurance. Such a policy provides protection against the same risks as during sick leave, while being a suitable option for those who want to determine the amount of daily insurance payment themselves. Some companies offer a calculator format at the stage of online insurance application to calculate the cost according to the requested payment.

For example, if a person wants to receive 1,000 rubles per day while on sick leave, the cost of such insurance will be 6,400 rubles per year. Agree that the price of the policy is not sensitive to the annual budget, since the preservation of health and income is more important.

I will explain with an example. Let’s say Inna decided to apply for a repair loan for 300,000 rubles for two years using the bank’s mobile application. Her monthly payment, including loan interest, is 10,771 rubles. Taking into account the fact that the woman has a child, she decided to activate the health protection option for childcare in case of sick leave. The application showed that with the specified loan parameters, Inna will receive an additional 1,665 rubles per day in case of an insurance event. The insurance amount will be included in the total loan payment and will amount to 11,954 rubles per month (1,183 rubles more).

Another advantage of sick leave insurance is that there is no limit on the number of sick leaves. If a child in the family gets sick, for example, once every two weeks, the payments will be this much. However, it should be noted that supporting documents are required in each specific case and that sick leave payments cannot exceed 21 days.

This is additional money that her employer and the Russian Social Fund must transfer to her. You can spend your payment on treatment, paying off your loan, or for any other purpose. This money helped Inna pay off part of her loan debt.