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Sickness benefit for job seekers

Sickness benefit is money you can receive if you are unable to search for or take a job due to illness.

Am I eligible for sickness benefit?

You are eligible for sickness benefit if you:

  • cannot search for or take a job because you are sick. You must be sick at least one-fourth of the time that you would have otherwise been searching for a job.
  • are registered as a job seeker at the Public Employment Service. There is an exception to this rule. If you stopped working less than 3 months ago, you can receive sickness benefit even if you are not registered as a job seeker at the Public Employment Service. However, you receive no sickness benefit the first 14 days.
  • are insured in Sweden. You are insured in Sweden if your last job was here. You may have worked in another country and still be insured in Sweden. There are also situations in which you may have worked in Sweden but were insured in another country. Call the Customer Centre at 0771-524 524 to learn what applies to you.

How much do I get?

You receive approximately 80 per cent of your previous salary, but this is capped to SEK 543 per day.

How do I apply?

 

1. Report your sickness

If you are not participating in a Public Employment Service programme, you must report your sickness the first day you are sick. Report your sickness to your employer if you work part time.


2. Apply

After reporting your sickness, log in to My pages (Mina sidor) to apply for sickness benefit.


3. Send in a doctor's certificate

If you are sick for more than 7 days, you must send in a doctor's certificate with information about your illness or injury. In most counties, electronic certificates can be issued. You can then send in your certificate on Mina intyg on 1177 Vårdguiden. This speeds up the process and you then do not have to send the certificate by post.

Mina intyg, 1177 Vårdguiden (minaintyg.se)

If you have received your doctor's certificate on paper and for some reason it has not been sent electronically to us, send the original to Försäkringskassans Inläsningscentral, 839 88 Östersund.

4. Disbursement

The first sickness benefit disbursement is not paid on a fixed date. It is instead paid once we have completed the processing work. If your application is complete, this takes no more than 30 days.

After the first disbursement, sickness benefit is paid on a specific date each month. Which date applies for you depends on when you were born: 

  • If you were born between the 1st and the 10th: the 25th of each month
  • If you were born between the 11th and the 20th: the 26th of each month
  • If you were born between the 21st and the 31st: the 27th of each month

 You can see all of your disbursements on My pages (Mina sidor).

Special disbursement dates

  • If the disbursement date is a Saturday, your money will be paid out on Friday.  
  • If the disbursement date is a Sunday, your money will be paid out on Monday.
  • Disbursement normally scheduled for 25, 26 and 27 December will be paid out on 21 December 2018.

 

 

You cannot receive sickness benefit and activity grant/development allowance/introduction benefit at the same time. However, you may be entitled to keep your compensation if you get sick, provided that you report your sickness to the Public Employment Service the first day you are absent. More information can be found on the page for Public Employment Service programme participants.

If you are receiving activity grant or development allowance

If you are receiving introduction benefit

 

If you want to change any aspect of your sick leave

 

Send in your new doctor’s certificate. You can do this digitally on Mina intyg on 1177 Vårdguiden.

Mina intyg, 1177 Vårdguiden (minaintyg.se)

If you answered yes when asked whether a new doctor’s certificate should serve to extend the sick leave when you applied for sickness benefit, then you do not need to do anything else.

If you answered no, an application form for extended sickness benefit will be sent to your home. You cannot apply for extended sickness benefit via Mina sidor (My pages).

 

 

If you begin seeking work part time or in any other way change the scope of your sick leave, you must notify us of this. This is done most easily via My pages (Mina sidor).


   

 

 

If you recover before your sickness period has run out, report your recovery on My pages (Mina sidor).



If you cannot use My pages (Mina sidor), call the Customer Centre at 0771-524 524 or contact your personal administrative officer.

 

What happens if I am sick for a long time?

If you are sick for a long time, you will be assigned a personal administrative officer to help you with all aspects of the sickness benefit. The administrator officer will contact you after you have received your first disbursement.

If necessary, you will work together to develop a plan to get you back to work. Your administrative officer can also schedule meetings with the Public Employment Service and your doctor so you can work as a team to develop a solid plan. The amount of contact you have with your administrative officer depends on how much help you need and how long your sick leave is expected to last.

 

Försäkringskassan and the Public Employment Service work in partnership to provide support to enable you to return to work if you have an illness or disability.

If you and your administrative officer decide that you may need occupational rehabilitation measures from the Public Employment Service, your administrative officer will schedule a meeting with an employment officer. At the meeting, we will all work to identify what measures you need to be able to return to work. Others, such as your employer or a healthcare professional, can also participate in the meeting.

Measures that may be offered include guidance in finding a job, job seeker activities or work training.

When can I get occupational rehabilitation measures

Your work capacity must be reduced due to sickness and there must be a need for occupational rehabilitation measures for you to be capable of working. Your administrative officer is responsible for making the assessment, but this is always done in dialogue with you and other relevant parties, like your doctor and employer.

What compensation can I receive?

If you are participating in occupational rehabilitation measures, such as work training, you can receive rehabilitation benefit instead of sickness benefit. As a minimum, the compensation is the same as your sickness benefit.

If you are initially unable to handle participation in a measure at a workplace, you can first receive guiding, investigating and supporting measures from the Public Employment Service. In such case, you can keep receiving sickness benefit while receiving support from the Public Employment Service.

 

 

If you are at risk of no longer being able to receive compensation from the health insurance system, you will be invited to a meeting with the Public Employment Service. The meeting will involve an administrative officer from Försäkringskassan and an employment officer. The meeting is an opportunity for you to receive support on your journey from sick leave to working life.

 


From health insurance to working life

1 minute

If you are at risk of no longer being able to receive compensation from the health insurance system or of having your application for sickness or activity compensation rejected, you may be invited to a meeting with the Public Employment Service. The meeting will involve an administrative officer from Försäkringskassan and an employment officer. The meeting is an opportunity for you to receive support on your journey from the health insurance system to working life.

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Frequently asked questions

Sickness benefit qualifying income (SGI) is an amount that Försäkringskassan calculates based on how much you earn per year. In the SGI guide you can answer a few questions and learn more about how SGI is calculated and how to protect it.

Starta SGI-guiden

Yes. If you are entitled to parental benefit at the sickness benefit level, you are entitled to sickness benefit if you cannot care for your child due to illness or someone else must be home to care for the child instead of you.

If you are not entitled to parental benefit at the sickness benefit level, then things are a little more complicated. Call the Customer Centre at 0771-524 524 to learn what applies for you.

How to apply for sickness benefit

1. Report your sickness

Report your sickness to Försäkringskassan the very first day you are sick.

Gör en sjukanmälan

2. Apply on My pages (Mina sidor)

Once you have reported your sickness, you can log in to My pages (Mina sidor) and apply for sickness benefit.

3. Send in a doctor's certificate

If you are sick for more than 7 days, you must send in a doctor's certificate with information about your illness or injury. You can ask your doctor to submit it electronically or send in the paper.

If you have received a paper copy of your doctor's certificate, send the original to Försäkringskassans Inläsningscentral, 839 88 Östersund.

If you have a permanently diminished work capacity and will probably never be able to work again due to illness or disability, you may be entitled to activity compensation or sickness compensation. Sickness compensation is for people 30 years of age or older, while activity compensation is for people younger than 30.

If you are no longer entitled to sickness benefit

If Försäkringskassan judges that you can work, then you are no longer entitled to sickness benefit. Your personal administrative officer can arrange a handover meeting with the Public Employment Service, which can help you find a job.

If you have received sickness benefit for the maximum amount of time

Once you have received sickness benefit for the maximum number of days, you will be invited to start working life introduction through the Public Employment Service.

Approximately four months before reaching the maximum number of days, you will receive an information letter from Försäkringskassan. Your personal administrative officer will then contact you to schedule a meeting with the Public Employment Service. During the meeting, you will receive practical information regarding your working life introduction and what compensation you can receive.

You can receive sickness benefit for as long as you cannot perform any work on the regular labour market.

Yes. This is called preventive sickness benefit. It is paid out so that you can undergo medical treatment or rehabilitation to prevent you from becoming sick or help you recover from an illness more quickly.

Preventive sickness benefit

Yes, it is possible to change administrative officer but this may take some time. If you are not satisfied with your personal administrative officer, you must first speak with them to attempt to remedy the situation. If this does not work, you or your administrative officer can contact the administrative officer's closest supervisor.

If you don't know who your administrative officer is, call the Customer Centre at 0771-524 524.

No. Starting from the month you turn 65, you can only receive sickness benefit if you would have worked the days you were sick.

This means that if you work part time and are seeking work part time, you can receive sickness benefit for the time you would have worked, but not for the time you would have been seeking a job.

Yes, provided that the travel does not negatively impact your rehabilitation or recovery.

If you will be travelling within the EU/EEA or to Switzerland, you do not need to apply to continue receiving your sickness benefit during your travel.

However, if you are travelling to a country outside the EU/EEA or Switzerland, you must apply to continue receiving your sickness benefit during your stay abroad before you leave. You apply on My pages (Mina sidor).

You need to inform us if you want to change the scope of your sickness absence, such as changing from full time to part time. This is most easily done by logging in to My pages (Mina sidor), where you can change the scope of your sickness benefit.

Yes, you can apply for 75%, 50% or 25% sickness benefit.

Log in to My pages (Mina sidor). There, you will be able to see your application and your doctor's certificate.

You can find answers to most questions about your case on My pages (Mina sidor). Otherwise, you can call the Customer Centre at 0771-524 524. If you are still sick after receiving your first sickness benefit payment, you will be assigned a personal administrative officer who will contact you.

You can still receive sickness benefit, but for no more than 7 days before you submitted your registration. This time may be extended if you were unable to report it earlier or if there are special circumstances, e.g. that you are seriously ill.

If you cannot apply via My pages (Mina sidor), call the Customer Centre at 0771-524 524 to have a form sent to your home.

You cannot download the form here on the web since it has been pre-filled with information about you.

As a person who is fully or partly unemployed, if you get sick, recover and then get sick again within five calendar days you will not get a new qualifying deduction.

If five calendar days or more have past since you were last sick, a new qualifying period applies.

This depends on how you answered the question regarding extension of sick leave when you applied for sickness benefit.

If you answered yes when asked whether a new doctor’s certificate should serve to extend the sick leave and your sick leave will remain at the same scope, then you do not need to apply. It is enough to just send in your new doctor’s certificate. You can do this digitally on Mina intyg on 1177 Vårdguiden.

Mina intyg, 1177 Vårdguiden (minaintyg.se)

If you answered no and your sick leave will remain at the same scope, you must apply for extended sickness benefit. A form will then be sent to your home once we have received your doctor’s certificate. You cannot apply for extended sickness benefit via Mina sidor (My pages).

If you are extending your sick leave, but it is at a different scope than previously (for example, if you are starting to work part-time), then you should not apply for an extension. You should instead apply for a change of scope for sickness benefit. This is done on My pages (Mina sidor).

You may be able to look for a job while you are receiving sickness benefit until you have been on sick leave for 180 days.

It is Försäkringskassan which determines whether you are entitled to sickness benefit while looking for a new job. You should therefore always speak with your personal administrative officer before applying for a new job. He/she can also arrange a meeting with the Public Employment Service, which can help you search for a new job.

If you get a new job, you also have the right to take a leave of absence from your old job.

If you have technical issues

If your e-identification does not work or if you have other technical issues, you can get help on our technical support pages. There, you can get assistance from an administrator directly in a web meeting. You are then connected with the administrator, who can see your screen and help you. Web meetings are available during the Customer Centre’s opening hours.

Technical support

If you have a protected identity

If you have a protected identity, you cannot use all of the e-services found on My pages (Mina sidor). You can instead apply using a paper form.

If you must apply using a paper form

If you cannot apply for sickness benefit via My pages (Mina sidor), call the Customer Centre at 0771-524 524 to have a form sent to your home. You cannot download the form here on the web since it has been pre-filled with information about you.

All other forms that can be downloaded from the website can be found under Forms and certificates.

Forms and certificates