If you fall ill or have given birth to a baby

 

Sickness and maternity benefits are available in every Member State, which shall supplement your income from employment, if you have fallen ill, given birth to a baby, or if you bring up a handicapped child and you can not perform your work at the same time. In Poland these benefits include, among others, remuneration for the period of illness paid by the employer, sickness allowance, rehabilitation benefit, maternity allowance, care allowance, and for farmers – sickness allowance and maternity allowance.

 

These are your rights:

 

1. The cash benefits in the event of sickness or maternity shall be paid by the Polish employer and ZUS or KRUS also when you stay or reside in another Member State. The benefit shall be transferred to a bank account, the number of which you shall give in your application for the benefit transfer, or you may receive it by mail.

 

2. If you have contracted an occupational disease, or you have had an accident at work, you shall be entitled to receive the sickness benefits even when you have not completed the required period of insurance.

 

3. You shall receive the benefits regardless of the place of your residence, although some Member States make the right to receive the sickness or maternity benefits conditioned on residence in their territory. Although the benefits are awarded and paid by the country, where you are insured, still you shall receive the money also when you stay or permanently reside in a country other than the country, where you are subject to insurance.You shall be subject to one legislation only – to that of the country, where you work, are insured, and claim the benefit.

 

4. If you are a worker posted by your employer to work abroad – you shall receive the benefits from the country, where the posting undertaking is based.

 

5. If you are a frontier worker – you shall have the right to receive the benefits from the state, where you work, although you permanently reside in another state.

 

6. If you reside and work in one country, but in addition you also work in another country – you shall receive the benefits from the country, where you reside and work.

 

7. If you have been employed in a country too short, the periods of your employment in other countries shall be aggregated. If you claim a Polish benefit – the periods of your insurance in other countries shall be taken into account for calculation of the insurance period required to acquire the right to the sickness allowance or remuneration, unless the gap in your insurance has exceeded 30 days. If the gap in your insurance has exceeded the limit, they shall be aggregated only when the gap resulted from a child-care leave, leave without pay or military service.

 

Cash benefits shall be paid by the competent institution (in the country of insurance), even if the insured person stays or resides in another Member State. However, subject to an agreement by and between the competent institution and the institution in the country of residence (or stay), such benefits may be provided by the institution in the country of residence (or stay) on the account of the competent institution, pursuant to the legislation of the state of the competent institution. In Poland the competent institution is the relevant branch office of ZUS or KRUS.

 

These are your obligations:

 

1. To have the right to the benefits, you must have been insured over a legitimate period. This is the period when you worked, and your employer, or yourself, transferred the sickness or accident insurance contributions. In Poland the sickness insurance is mandatory for persons employed and voluntary for those self-employed.

 

2. In Poland you shall acquire the right to the sickness allowance or remuneration for the period of sickness when you are subject to the mandatory sickness insurance – after 30 days from the insurance coverage start. If you are self-employed – the sickness allowance may be awarded to you after 180 days of your interrupted sickness insurance.

 

3. If you stay or are resident in a Member State other than the competent Member State, in order to receive sickness or maternity benefits, you should follow this procedure:

 

If the legislation of the competent Member State requires you to present a certificate in order to be entitled to cash benefits relating to incapacity for work pursuant to Article 21(1) of the basic Regulation, you shall ask the doctor of the Member State of residence who established your state of health to certify your incapacity for work and its probable duration.

 

You shall send the certificate to the competent institution within the time limit laid down by the legislation of the competent Member State.

 

Where the doctors providing treatment in the Member State of residence do not issue certificates of incapacity for work, and where such certificates are required under the legislation of the competent Member State, you shall apply directly to the institution of the place of residence. That institution shall immediately arrange for a medical assessment of your incapacity for work and for the certificate to be drawn up. The certificate shall be forwarded to the competent institution forthwith.

 

The forwarding of the document referred to in above shall not exempt you from fulfilling the obligations provided for by the applicable legislation, in particular with regard to his employer. Where appropriate, the employer and/or the competent institution may call upon you to participate in activities designed to promote and assist your return to employment.

 

4. You can not receive more than one of the same benefits for the same period of the mandatory sickness insurance. If you work, for instance, in two countries at the same time – you can be awarded the benefit only in one of them.

 

5. If you are entitled to receive the maternity benefits from two or more countries – you shall receive the certificate from the state, where you have given birth to your child.

 

All formalities relating to claiming sickness or maternity benefits shall be dispensed with the following EU forms:

 

E 105 – Certificate concerning the members of the family of an employed person or self-employed person to be taken into consideration for calculation of cash benefits in the case of incapacity for work

E 115 – Claim for cash benefits for incapacity for work,

E 116 – Medical report relating to incapacity for work (sickness, maternity, accident at work, occupational disease),

E 117 – Granting of cash benefits in case of maternity and incapacity for work,

E 118 – Notification of non-recognition or of end of incapacity for work.

 

These forms are currently replaced by documents SED type S.