How do I apply for pregnancy benefit?

What is pregnancy benefit?

Pregnancy benefit is provided to a pregnant woman who is insured for sickness with the Social Insurance Agency. Please note that pregnancy benefit is not a pregnancy scholarship that schools provide to pregnant students.

Am I eligible for pregnancy benefit?

A pregnant woman is entitled to pregnancy benefit if she is:

  • an employee;
  • a self-employed person (SEP) who is compulsorily insured for sickness;
  • a voluntarily insured person (VIP);
  • an insuree whose entitlement to pregnancy benefit arises after the end of the sickness insurance within the protection period; or
  • an insuree for whom compulsory insurance is suspended due to parental leave (an employee) or to receiving parental benefit (SEP).

What requirements do I have to meet?

You are entitled if you meet the following requirements:

  • you are pregnant;

  • at the time of applying for the benefit:
    • you are insured for sickness; or
    • you are in a protection period after the end of your insurance; or
    • you are an employee whose compulsory sickness insurance is suspended due to parental leave on the day the reason for pregnancy benefit arose; or
    • you are a SEP whose compulsory sickness insurance is suspended due to entitlement to parental benefit on the day the reason for pregnancy benefit arose; and
  • you have achieved at least 270 days of sickness insurance in the last 2 years before the reason for pregnancy benefit arose. The following are counted for these purposes:
    • the period of any previous completed sickness insurance;
    • the period of suspension of the employee’s compulsory sickness insurance due to receiving parental leave; and
    • the period of suspension of the SEP’s compulsory sickness insurance due to entitlement to parental benefit;
    • a period of an employee’s sickness insurance during which the employee did not have an assessment basis for the payment of sickness insurance contributions on the grounds that they did not earn income is not counted; the exception are periods in which the employee did not have an assessment basis, since they were exempt from paying sickness insurance contributions (e.g. due to the duration of temporary incapacity for work).
  • if you are a SEP or a VIP and you have paid sickness insurance contributions on time and at the correct amount (see Requirement of payment of sickness insurance contributions (SK)). This requirement does not apply to employees.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

If you are entitled to pregnancy benefit under more than one sickness insurance policy, you must satisfy the conditions listed below for each of them.

How do I apply for pregnancy benefit?

1

Visit your doctor (gynaecologist),

who will issue you with an ‘Application for Pregnancy Benefit’. The doctor will issue this application at the first preventive examination at the beginning of the 2nd trimester after the 13th week of pregnancy, since the entitlement to pregnancy benefit arises only for women whose pregnancy has not been terminated by the beginning of the 27th week before the expected birth date.

The doctor will confirm the expected date of your childbirth on request.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: If you are entitled to pregnancy benefit from more than one sickness insurance policy (e.g. as an employee and as a self-employed person), your doctor will issue and confirm a separate application for each one of them. You do not submit your application to your employer, as they do not confirm any details.

2

Fill in and sign the ‘Insuree Declaration’

on the second page of the form

3

Send your application electronically using the eForm

PREGNANCY BENEFIT APPLICATION (SK) (Social Insurance Agency eForm)

PREGNANCY BENEFIT APPLICATION (eForm of the Central Public Administration Portal slovensko.sk, for which you need an electronic identity card – eID)

Attach a copy/scan of the 1st page of the application (the page confirmed by a doctor) to the electronic application form.

4

You can also deliver your request on paper (if you did not use the eForm)

to the competent Social Insurance Agency branch according to:

  • the employer’s registered office if you are an employee; or
  • your place of permanent residence if you are a SEP or a voluntarily insured person (VIP).

 

 

Do I have any obligations after my pregnancy?

Yes, you are only required to prove the termination of pregnancy to the Social Insurance Agency if:

  • the pregnancy terminated otherwise than by birth;
  • the pregnancy terminated by delivery, but the insuree is a foreign national or the child was born abroad.

For these purposes, a doctor of the healthcare facility in which the pregnancy terminated or a gynaecologist who learns of the termination of the pregnancy will issue you with a Certificate of Termination of Pregnancy. You should submit this certificate to the Social Insurance Agency branch that pays you your pregnancy benefit. However, you can prove the termination of pregnancy by other means, e.g. a medical report.

USEFUL TIP:

We recommend that you submit the application for pregnancy benefit as soon as the application has been issued by the doctor (see the Limitations (SK)).

For more information, please see PENSION INSURANCE – PREGNANCY BENEFIT (SK).