If you have health problems that affect your ability to work, but you receive income from independent activities, from investments, from the transfer of the use of goods (or other additional wages), you can receive temporary disability benefits.

The Emergency Ordinance (EOG 10/2023) introduced several innovations, and fiscal consultant Adrian Benza made a brief analysis of them.

What you must do to get help

To get this right, Benza says, eligible persons must sign an insurance contract with the medical center where they are registered and must pay a fee of 1% of the monthly income specified in the insurance contract.

The regulation correlates with the Fiscal Code in the sense that the monthly income or average monthly insured income is what is contained in the single declaration submitted for the purpose of paying the social health insurance contribution for unpaid income, and this amount cannot be less than the amount of the gross minimum wages for the country guaranteed in payment and not to exceed 3 times the gross minimum wage guaranteed in payment.

In the case of valid insurance contracts, where the value of the insurance base exceeds 3 guaranteed minimum gross wages, within 60 days an additional act on the initiative of the medical center must conclude an agreement on reducing the calculation base to the level of 3 minimum gross basic wages guaranteed in payment.

According to Benzi, the penalty for failure to fulfill this obligation is termination of the insurance contract.

There is also an exception in the sense that for pregnancy and leave, the basis for calculating the benefit is defined as the average value of the income for the last six months out of the 12 months that make up the period of payment of contributions.

Analyzing the changes as a whole, we notice the legislator’s intention to significantly reduce sick leave for persons with additional income, with the exception of temporary leave in connection with pregnancy and childbirth.