Declaring and managing periods of incapacity for work

Large businesses

Monthly

Self-employed

SMEs

Last updated more than 5 years ago

Every month, when filing their declaration of their employees' salaries with the Joint Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale - CCSS), employers must also file a declaration of their employees' 'incapacity for work' periods.

There are several types of incapacity for work:

leave due to illness or accident;
leave for family reasons;
maternity leave;
leave for pregnant or breastfeeding women;
adoption leave;
leave to look after a terminally ill family member.

Who is concerned

The declaration of 'incapacity for work' periods must be filed by the employer.

Prerequisites

Employers must declare their employees' 'incapacity for work' periods if:

Deadlines

No later than 10 days after the end of every month, the employer must file a monthly declaration of all the 'incapacity for work' periods of each employee, along with their declaration of their employee's salaries.

How to proceed

Filings with the CCSS

The employer may file the declaration with the CCSS:

using the declaration of periods of incapacity for work form; or
online using SECUline.

Filing the 'incapacity for work' and salary declarations automatically triggers the reimbursement of any payments made by the employer during the period of continuation of pay.

For each uninterrupted period of incapacity for work (i.e. not interrupted by a return to work), the employer must specify:

the employee's national identification number (matricule - 13-digit social security number);
the employee's surname and first name;
the start and end dates of the period of incapacity for work (i.e. the first and the last day of the uninterrupted absence from work);
the type of incapacity for work.

If a period of incapacity for work lasts several months, each month must be included in the monthly declaration.

As of the 1^st of January 2020, employers must report the following in their monthly declaration of incapacity for work:

'incapacity for work' periods in the previous month;
the exact number of corresponding hours of leave taken by employees. Where applicable, the declaration should also include the number of hours (of leave due to incapacity for work) that the employee should have worked on any legal or customary public holidays.

However, the number of hours claimed may not exceed the number of working hours declared.

Remarks :

The hours claimed are the hours of absence of an employee, due to incapacity for work, for which the employer has ensured the continuation of wages.

Hours declared in the declaration of salaries include:

the hours actually worked, excluding overtime;
the hours of annual leave taken;
the hours claimed.

Therefore, overtime that was scheduled but not worked should not be declared.

The employer may keep a monthly record of the number of sick days taken during the previous 18 months. Keeping such a record would enable the employer to check the situation of each employee with regards to the continuation of pay in case of illness.

Refunds

The employers' mutual insurance scheme (Mutualité des employeurs - MDE) will not refund salaries advanced by the employer unless employees' periods of incapacity for work are declared.

Employers must pay their employees' compensation until the end of the calendar month in which the 77^th day of incapacity for work falls, within a reference period of 18 consecutive calendar months, which equates to a period of 13 week on average.

Refunds of benefits are made by the CCSS on behalf of the employers' mutual insurance scheme by crediting the monthly account statement with the amount in question.

To be able to receive an automatic refund for a specific month, the employer must file the following with the CCSS:

the declaration of salaries, mentioning the actual pay for the month in question, and the working hours corresponding to the pay;
the declaration of incapacity for work, mentioning:
- the declared periods and hours of leave;
- the type of incapacity for work.

A breakdown of the refunds paid for each employee is sent to the employer or their representative:

in electronic form through the SECUline website; or
for employers who file hard-copy (paper) declarations, in the form of a statement showing all the information forming the basis of the refund.

Refunds will be blocked automatically if inconsistencies are found in the employer's declarations. For example, a declaration would be deemed inconsistent if a declaration of incapacity for work lists more hours of leave than working hours reported in the declaration of salaries.

The refund will remain blocked until the employer submits the schedule of working hours they received from the CCSS:

If the employee does not fulfil their obligation to submit their medical certificate to the National Health Fund (Caisse nationale de santé - CNS), the CCSS will request the employer to provide the original of the employee's medical certificate.

Copies will not be accepted.

Refunds for periods of incapacity for work are made on a monthly basis by offsetting the amount against the cumulated amount of social security contributions claimed by the Joint Social Security Centre (CCSS). If the refund exceeds the amount of contributions, the excess amount is put in reserve, unless the employer specifically requests that the refund be made.

The employer will only be reimbursed if:

they have properly filed the declaration of incapacities for work and the corresponding declaration of salaries and working hours for the month in question;
they have complied with any requests from the CCSS for further proof or information.

Calculation method

The reference base used to calculate refunds is the gross salary plus the employer's share of contributions in respect of illness, pension and accident insurance.

The employer will be reimbursed 80 % of the reference base for standard periods of incapacity for work (due to illness or a work accident).

The employer will be reimbursed 100 % of the reference base for periods of incapacity for work for the following reasons:

illness or an accident occurring during an employee's trial period, but for no more than 3 months of leave;
leave of absence for family reasons;
maternity or breast-feeding leave;
adoption leave;
leave to look after a terminally ill family member.

Calculation of the amount to be reimbursed:

R = (A x nH) / TH x 0.8 for periods reimbursed at 80 %
R = (A x nH) / TH for periods reimbursed at 100 %

R = Reimbursement

A = Reference base

nH = number of hours of incapacity for work, validated by the CNS

TH = Total number of hours that should have been worked during the month

Forms / Online services

Déclaration des périodes d’incapacités de travail

Télécharger le formulaire

Arbeitsunfähigkeitsmeldung

Das Formular herunterladen

SECUline - communication en ligne avec le CCSS

Démarche en ligne

Accéder à la démarche

Demande de remboursement pour personnes morales

Télécharger le formulaire

Who to contact

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Joint Social Security Centre

125, route d'Esch
L-2975 Luxembourg
Luxembourg

Phone : (+352) 40141-1

08.00 - 16.00

(+352) 40141-1 Joint Social Security Centre Path to Joint Social Security Centre

Double click to activate the map

National Health Fund

125, route d'Esch
L-1471 Luxembourg
Luxembourg

Phone : (+352) 27 57-1

(+352) 27 57-1 cns@secu.lu National Health Fund Path to National Health Fund

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