How do I apply for a nursing benefit?

What is a nursing benefit?

Nursing benefit is provided to an insured person in the event of personal and full-time care for a person or personal and full-time care for a child until the age of 11 years or until the age of 18 if the person is a child with a long-term adverse health condition.

Who are persons who can be nursed?

To receive the benefit, you can provide nursing to:

  • a sick direct relative (parent – child, grandparent – grandchild, great grandparent – great grandchild);
  • a sick child who is not your direct relative (e.g. a child adopted or placed in care on the basis of the decision of a competent authority, or a spouse’s own or adopted child);
  • a sick sibling;
  • a sick spouse; or
  • a spouse’s sick parent.

To qualify for a nursing benefit, you will need a certificate from a competent doctor confirming that the person’s health condition:

  • necessarily requires treatment by another natural person (‘short-term carer’s benefit’); or
  • requires nursing by another person, because of the need to provide personal care in the cared-for person’s natural environment (‘long-term nursing benefit’).

Short-term nursing benefit is provided in the statutory cases (see conditions below) also in the event of personal and full-time care of a child until the age of 11 or until the age of 18 if the child has a long-term adverse health condition.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

An assessment from the competent Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family on the long-term adverse health condition or a decision on the child’s long term unfavourable health condition is required to prove the child’s long-term adverse health condition. If you do not have such an assessment/decision, you can ask the Social Insurance Agency to assess the long-term adverse health condition.

Am I entitled to the nursing benefit?

The following are entitled to the nursing benefit (both short-term and long-term):

  • an employee;
  • a self-employed person who is compulsorily insured for sickness (SEP);
  • a person voluntarily insured for sickness (VIP);
  • a natural person for whom the need arises for personal and full-time care or nursing after the expiry of sickness insurance within a protection period (see Protection Period (SK)).

What requirements do I have to meet?

You are entitled to the nursing benefit if you meet the following requirements:

  • you take care of a sick family member personally for the whole day (see who can be a person who can be nursed;
  • you take care of a child until the age of 11 or the age of 18 who has a long-term adverse health condition personally for the whole day if
    • the child has been ordered to be in quarantine or isolation;
    • the pre-school or social services facility in which the child is cared for, or the school that the child attends has been closed or ordered to be in quarantine by decision of the competent authorities; or
    • the person who is caring for the child has become sick or been ordered to be in quarantine, isolation or taken into the institutional care of a medical facility, and therefore cannot take care of the child;
  • you are insured for sickness or you are in a protection period after the end of your insurance;
  • if you are an employee:
    • you have not been paid income for work performed, which is considered to be the assessment basis, for the period of temporary incapacity for work (important is the period for which income is paid and whether it is the income for work performed);
    • the payment of sickness insurance contributions by the employer is not monitored;
  • if you are a self-employed person:
    you have paid sickness insurance contributions in due time and at the correct amount (see Requirement for Payment of Sickness Insurance Contributions (SK));
  • if you are a VIP:
    • you have paid sickness insurance contributions in due time and at the correct amount (see Requirement for Payment of Sickness Insurance Contributions (SK));
    • in the last 2 years before the start of the need for personal and full-time care or nursing, you were insured under a sickness insurance scheme for at least 270 days (for this purpose, in addition to the current voluntary sickness insurance, any other terminated sickness insurance will be taken into account).
      An employee’s sickness insurance period during which the employee did not have an assessment basis for the payment of sickness insurance contributions because they did not earn income is not counted in the 270 days of sickness insurance; this does not include periods in which the employee did not have an assessment basis because they were exempt from paying sickness insurance contributions (e.g. due to the duration of temporary incapacity for work).

Please note that if you are entitled to nursing benefit under more than one sickness insurances, you must satisfy the conditions listed below for each of them.

How do I apply for a short-term nursing benefit?

1

You can apply for a short-term nursing benefit with an Application for Nursing Benefit

You apply for a short-term nursing benefit with the Application for a Short-Term Nursing Benefit (due to the sickness of the person being nursed) or the Application for a Sickness Benefit (due to the closure of a school, preschool or social services facility)

  1. An application for a nursing benefit, which is confirmed by the relevant doctor, if you are applying for a nursing benefit due to the sickness of the person being nursed (confirmed by the doctor of the person being treated) or due to the care of a child up to the age of 11 or a child up to the age of 18 with a long-term unfavourable health condition, if the child has been ordered to quarantine measures/isolation (confirmed by a paediatrician), or if the natural person taking care of the child has fallen sick, has been ordered to quarantine measures/isolation, or has been admitted to the institutional care of a medical facility, and therefore cannot take care of the child (confirmed by the doctor of the person who cannot take care of the child).
     
    An application for a nursing benefit will be issued to you by an authorized doctor upon finding the need for personal and all-day nursing or personal and all-day care.
     
    From the doctor you will need: 
    • when the need for nursing/care arises - part I. of the form – Application for a Nursing Benefit, before sending it to the Social Insurance Agency, fill in and sign the "Declaration of the Insuree" on the other side of the form
    • at the end of the need for nursing/care - II. part of the form – Certificate of the End of the Need for Personal and All-Day Nursing/Care, send the confirmation to the branch of the Social Insurance Agency, which pays you the nursing benefit.
  2. An application for a nursing benefit due to the closure of a school, preschool or social service facility, which you fill out as an insuree, if you are applying for a nursing benefit due to the care of a child up to the age of 11 or a child up to the age of 18 with a long-term unfavourable health condition that cannot attend school/pre-school facility/social services facility where the child is cared for, as they were closed by the decision of the competent authorities or a quarantine measure was ordered by the relevant regional public health office.
     
    The doctor does not issue an Application for a Nursing Benefit Due to the Closure of a School, Preschool or Social Service Facility. The application is available on the website of the Social Insurance Agency here: Application for a Nursing Benefit Due to the Closure of a School, Preschool or Social Services Facility (SK), or it will be provided to you by the Social Insurance Agency.
    • In the application, you fill in part A. and fill in and sign the "Declaration of the Insuree" on the other side of the form.
    • Have the application confirmed in part B. at the school/preschool/social services facility your child attends. The relevant facility will confirm the period in which it is closed.
    • If the information in the application in part B. has not been confirmed as to how long the school/pre-school facility/social services facility is closed, the entitlement to the payment of nursing benefit is conditional upon sending the form Notification of Change in Facts Affecting the Entitlement to Nursing Benefit Due to the Closure of the School/Preschool /Social Services Facility, in which the school/preschool/social services facility will confirm the date they were closed. You fill in and sign part A of the notification. The form is available on the website of the Social Insurance Agency here: Notification of Change in Facts Affecting the Entitlement to Nursing Benefit Due to the Closure of the School/Preschool/Social Services Facility (SK), or it will be provided to you by the Social Insurance Agency.
    • With this form, you can also report other changes that have occurred since the application was submitted - whether you received a salary/compensation of salary from the employer while providing care, or you can report the interruption/termination of childcare, or other changes affecting entitlement to nursing benefit.
2

If you are an employee, please get the application confirmed by

your employer as well.

3

Send your application to the Social Insurance Agency branch

relevant according to:

  • if you are an employee, the employer’s registered office;
  • if you are an employee within the protection period, your last employer’s registered office;
  • if you are an SEP or a VIP, your place of permanent residence.

 

 

How do I apply for a long-term nursing benefit?

1

You can apply for a long-term nursing s benefit with the following forms:

Confirmation of the need for personal, full-time care and the first time personal and full-time care services were provided – Application for a ‘Long-Term’ Nursing Benefit / Proof of the period of personal and full-time care provision to claim exemption from the obligation to pay social insurance contributions.

Confirmation of the provision of personal and full-time care by another person – Application for a ‘Long-Term’ Nursing Benefit / Proof of the period of personal and full-time care provision to claim exemption from the obligation to pay social insurance contributions.

This will be issued by the general practitioner of the person cared for if you want to rotate with another person during the care.

Confirmation of the duration of personal and full-time care at the end of the calendar month / Proof of the period of personal and full-time care provision to claim exemption from the obligation to pay social insurance contributions.

This will be issued by the general practitioner of the person cared for at the end of each month of care – it serves for the payment of benefit.

Confirmation of the end of personal and full-time care / Confirmation of the end of the need for personal and full-time care / Proof of the period of personal and full-time care provision to claim exemption from the obligation to pay social insurance contributions.

This will be issued by the general practitioner of the person who provided nursing at the end of the nursing (e.g. in the case of the rotating of insured persons during care for a sick person) and at the end of the overall need for care.

This form is required first and serves as an application for a nursing benefit, as well as a confirmation of the need for care. This will be issued to you by:

a doctor at the hospital where the patient has been hospitalised for at least 5 days if the application is due to the need to care for a patient following hospitalisation, on the day that the sick person is discharged from the hospital at the latest. Please note that the need for care in this case must be 30 days. a palliative doctor, i.e. a doctor with a specialisation in palliative medicine, clinical oncology, geriatrics, internal medicine, gastroenterology, haematology and transfusion, hepatology, cardiology, nephrology, neurology, pneumology and phtiseology, rheumatology, gynaecology, anaesthetics and intensive medicine, algesiology, surgery, orthopaedics, trauma surgery or paediatrics, when the treatment is at the palliative patient stage, i.e. a patient who is at the end-of-life stage or at the terminal stage of the disease, on the day when the need for treatment is identified.

2

Fill in and sign the ‘Declaration of the Insured Person’ on the second page of the forms

Please send the forms to the Social Insurance Agency branch.

3

If you are an employee, please get the form confirmed by

your employer as well. This will prove to them the obstacle to work and its duration.

4

Send the application and the required forms to the Social Insurance Agency branch

relevant according to:

  • the employer’s registered office if you are an employee;
  • your last employer’s registered office if you are an employee within the protection period;
  • your place of permanent residence if you are an SEP or a VIP.

 

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

If you claim a nursing benefit (both short-term and long-term) from more than sickness insurances, the authorised doctor will issue you with the application and the required forms separately for each of them.

USEFUL TIP:

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

More information can be found in the section: SICKNESS INSURANCE – NURSING BENEFIT (SK).