[Czech Republic] Nursing allowance related to a school facility closure

Due to the coronavirus crisis, the conditions for nursing allowance related to a school facility closure were changed several times.

Czech Republic

We bring you currently valid information not only on the basis of new legislation, but also on the basis of the ČSSZ (Czech Social Security Office) statement. The latest amendment increased the amount of nursing allowance from 60% to 80% of the daily assessment base, for the period from April 1^st, 2020 to June 30^th, 2020. Another significant change is the expansion of the group of persons entitled to the nursing allowance. Newly, nursing allowance can be received by employees who work on an agreement on work activities or an agreement on the performance of work. These employees are entitled to the nursing allowance under these conditions:

• agreement was concluded before March 11^th, 2020,
• agreement has to be still valid; after the termination of the agreement it isn’t possible to receive the nursing allowance,
• in the month from which the nursing allowance is claimed for the first time, the agreement must be insured (social insurance must be paid from it); there is one exception: if the nursing allowance is claimed from March and the agreement was not insured in March, entitlement will arise if the agreement was insured at least in February; in other cases, entitlement to allowance does not arise.

It follows that if an employee claims for nursing allowance from April or later and his/her agreement is not insured in that month, the entitlement to nursing allowance will not arise.

Common mistakes of employees

Furthermore, the ČSSZ specifies how an employee’s and employer’s forms are to be filled in. An employee should correctly mark with a cross only those days on which s/he took care of a child and at the same time did not receive a wage or wage compensation from his/her employer. If an employee took care of a child, for example, on May 11^th, but worked for 30 minutes for the employer on the same day, s/he cannot mark this day in the form, as a part of salary will be received for that day.

The same applies if an employee receives wage compensation for holiday from the employer or for any other absence. It is also not possible to mark a day of a public holiday if this public holiday is paid by the employer. It is recommended to agree with the employer which days will be paid and which will not, in order to avoid an unjustified claim for nursing allowance.

On the contrary, it is a common mistake that an employee does not mark the days of a weekend, even though the employee took care of a child. Although nursing allowances cannot be claimed only for non-working days, it is also a mistake not to mark weekends if the employee takes care of the child during these weekends and at the same time takes care of the child during working days.

Other common mistakes include: failure to provide information about the child or the household, failure to provide information whether the employee received parental allowance or maternity allowance, failure to fill in the bank account number, and not signing the form.

Common mistakes of employers

An employer most often makes a mistake by not filling in the form at all or sending it to the ČSSZ electronically via e-mail without e-signature. Furthermore, it is a common mistake that an employer incorrectly marks days when an employee had planned shifts (or does not mark them at all) and does not mark days, which an employee didn’t work for but received wage or wage compensation from the employer, as “worked days” (see public holidays mentioned above), holidays, etc.).

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