Basic rules for filling out a certificate of incapacity for work, continued

New rules for issuing sick leave in 2021

The Ministry of Health issued order No. 925n dated September 1, 2020 “On approval of the procedure for issuing and processing certificates of incapacity for work, including the procedure for generating certificates of incapacity for work in the form of an electronic document.” Document No. 59812 was registered with the Ministry of Justice on September 14, 2020 and officially published. It came into force on December 14, 2020. The changes are aimed at simplifying the issuance of sick leave in the face of the threat of the spread of dangerous diseases, especially coronavirus infection. Medical institutions were allowed to issue sick leave certificates remotely, after the patient contacted a therapist via chat or video call, that is, using telemedicine technologies. Similarly, if necessary, a certificate of long-term incapacity for work for pregnancy and childbirth is filled out.

A medical institution’s sick leave certificate was required to be issued in the form of an electronic file and only duplicated on paper if necessary. In the future, the Ministry of Labor plans to completely abandon paper sick leave. For now, as an exception, they will be issued:

• pregnant women who were dismissed due to the liquidation of an enterprise, who lost their individual entrepreneur status or resigned as a notary (lawyer);
• unemployed citizens who need to confirm that they did not come to the employment service on the appointed day for a good reason.

Parents of preschool children attending kindergarten are given sick leave immediately for the entire quarantine period if it is declared in kindergarten.

Use the updated instructions for filling out sick leave from ConsultantPlus

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Table "Exemption from work"

When filling out the table “Exemption from work”, in the line “Last name and initials of the doctor or identification number”, indicate the doctor’s surname, then with a space in one cell his initials (clause 57 of the Procedure approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n) .

In cases where the doctor's last name and initials exceed 14 characters in the first row of cells, the end of the doctor's last name and initials can be moved to the second row of cells in this line. If these cells are not enough, that is, the doctor’s last name and initials have more than 28 characters, then the last name can be entered without initials. Last name does not fit into 28 cells? Then you can reduce it within the existing limits.

If a medical worker issues a sick leave certificate by decision of a medical commission, then in the line “Last name and initials of the doctor or identification number,” in addition to the surname and initials of the attending physician, he must indicate the surname and initials of the chairman of the medical commission.

In the first row of the specified line there are not enough cells to fill in the surname and initials of the attending physician (more than 14 characters), and in the second row there is not enough space for the surname and initials of the chairman of the medical commission (more than 14 characters)? Then only the surnames of the doctor (in the first row of cells) and the chairman of the medical commission (in the second row of cells) without initials can be entered. And again, if any of the names does not fit into the allocated cells, then it can be shortened.

Similar explanations are contained in paragraph 5 of the letter of the FSS of Russia dated October 28, 2011 No. 14-03-18/15-12956 and paragraph 2 of the letter of the FSS of Russia dated September 14, 2011 No. 14-03-11/15-8605.

In the line “Physician's position” the specific specialty (therapist, pediatrician, surgeon, ENT, etc.) must be indicated. If the number of letters in the name of the doctor’s position exceeds nine cells, then an abbreviation is possible: “allergol”, “stomatol”, “ophthalmol”, etc., since it allows you to identify the doctor’s position.

Situation: can a doctor indicate in the line “Physician’s position” simply the words “doctor” or “treating physician”?

Answer: no, this is unacceptable.

However, such a deficiency is not a basis for re-issuing a certificate of incapacity for work and refusing to assign and pay benefits.

Such clarifications are contained in paragraphs 10 and 17 of the letter of the FSS of Russia dated October 28, 2011 No. 14-03-18/15-12956.

New rules for calculating sick leave

On January 1, 2021, Federal Law No. 478-FZ dated December 29, 2020, amending Federal Law No. 323-FZ dated November 21, 2011, came into force. It completely abolishes the payment of temporary sick leave by employers for the entire period. They were obliged to transfer to the Social Insurance Fund the data and documents necessary for calculating benefits. The period for posting the information necessary for the assignment and payment of benefits in the FSS information system is only 3 working days. Sick leave will be paid directly by the Social Insurance Fund.

General requirements for registration of sick leave

The rules that a sick leave certificate presented by an employee must meet are spelled out in Chapter IX of the Procedure, approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n. Some features of filling out a sick leave certificate, which are not clearly stated in the order, are explained in letters from the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia dated December 23, 2011 No. 14-03-11/15-16055, dated October 28, 2011 No. 14-03-18/15- 12956 and dated September 14, 2011 No. 14-03-11/15-8605.

The front side of the form is drawn up by the doctor and the employer. The reverse side provides brief information on filling out the document.

It is important that all entries on the certificate of incapacity for work are made in printed capital letters:

• or using a printing device (on a computer). The program for medical workers, through which data is entered into the form, can be downloaded from the website of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia;

• or by hand. You can use a gel, capillary or fountain pen with black ink.

Such rules are established by paragraphs 56, 65 of the Procedure approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n.

But what if the sick leave certificate is filled out using a combined method? That is, partly by hand, and partly on the computer. You can assign and pay benefits based on such a document. Indeed, in the order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n, there are no requirements that sick leave must be filled out uniformly in one way or another. These clarifications are given in the letter of the FSS of Russia dated October 23, 2014 No. 17-03-09/06-3841P.

Situation: what to do if the sick leave form was filled out with a ballpoint pen?

The answer to this question depends on which section of the sick leave form is filled out with a ballpoint pen: the one filled out by the doctor, or the one drawn up by the employer.

If the doctor filled out the corresponding section of the sick leave certificate with a ballpoint pen, then the sick leave certificate is damaged. Instead, the medical organization must issue a duplicate of the bulletin. Such rules are established by paragraph 5 of clause 56 of the Procedure, approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n.

If the section “To be completed by the employer” is filled in with a ballpoint pen, then two options are possible.

The first option, which is offered in private explanations by specialists from the FSS of Russia, is as follows. Notes made with a ballpoint pen should be carefully crossed out with one black line. On the back of the sick note, repeat these notes with a black gel (capillary, fountain) pen in block capitals. Make a certification entry “Believe the Corrected”, certify the corrections with the signature of the responsible person and the seal of the organization. Such conclusions follow from paragraph 4 of paragraph 65 of the Procedure, approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n.

Advice: joint stock companies and LLCs have the right not to use a seal. But for now it’s better not to give up seals. The explanation is this.

On April 7, 2015, the Law of April 6, 2015 No. 82-FZ “On amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation regarding the abolition of the mandatory seal of business companies” came into force. Articles 2 and 6 of this Law provide that joint stock companies and LLCs now have the right (and not the obligation) to have a seal. The company reflects information about the presence of a seal in the charter.

At the same time, paragraph 65 of the Procedure, approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n, continues to apply. This by-law provides that all corrections to the sick leave certificate must be certified by the employer-organization with a seal.

So far, there are no official explanations on how to act if the organization does not have a seal. Therefore, we recommend that you continue to use the seal when correcting sick leave. Do this until changes are made to the order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n.

Business companies should take a balanced approach to the issue of completely excluding printing from document circulation. Do not forget that this will require changes to the charter.

The second option does not involve any corrections in the already completed form, if there are no other errors in the sick leave registration. The fact is that the territorial bodies of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia can temporarily accept for payment certificates of incapacity for work with technical errors (including those filled out with a ballpoint pen), if such errors:

– do not affect the amount of benefits paid;

– do not prevent their processing in manual mode (automated processing of sick leave certificates has not yet been introduced).

Such clarifications are given in the letter of the FSS of Russia dated April 29, 2013 No. 14-15/10/5851.

To choose one of the proposed options, we recommend that you additionally seek clarification from the local branch of the FSS of Russia, since the position of the territorial bodies of this department may vary in the regions.

When and why do you issue a certificate of temporary incapacity for work?

If a citizen has lost his ability to work due to illness (injury) or illness of a family member, he has the right to count on benefits. To receive benefits and confirm a valid reason for failure to appear, the employee provides the employer with a form of a certificate of incapacity for work issued by a doctor, or the number of an electronic document in the register. The employer’s task is to fill out his part of the document, which is divided by a transverse line, or enter information into the electronic register. The first part is filled out by the doctor.

The sick leave form has not changed since 2011. In 2021, Russian medical institutions began issuing documents on temporary disability to citizens in electronic format. The employee has the right to choose in what form to receive the sheet: in the usual paper or electronic form.

The color of the paper form is blue. The fields to fill out consist of light yellow cells, each for one letter or number. There is a watermark on the paper to protect against counterfeiting. The reverse side of the certificate of incapacity for work is reserved for information: how to fill out the form correctly, what is the procedure for entering data. It bears a large logo of the FSS of the Russian Federation - this is a protective watermark. For greater protection against fraudsters, numbers are assigned to sheets in random order. They are located in the upper right corner, have a unique 12-digit combination and a barcode.

Subsection "care"

The lines of the “care” subsection are filled in when caring for a sick family member, including quarantine of the child.

In the first two cells, the lines “age (years/months)” indicate the number of completed years of the family member being cared for. If the sick child has not reached the age of one year, then these cells are not filled in, and the second two cells indicate the child’s age in months (clause 58 of the Procedure approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n).

In the line “family relationship” the corresponding two-digit code is entered:

38 – mother;

39 – father;

40 – guardian;

41 – trustee;

42 – another relative who is actually caring for a sick family member.

In the line “Name of the family member being cared for,” enter the last name, first name, and patronymic (if any) of the disabled person in one cell, separated by a space.

How to fill out sick leave in a medical institution

The medical institution entrusts the filling out of the document to the attending physician - he fills out the first section. We will give only a general description and description of the procedure for filling out the first part and will dwell in more detail on how to fill out a sick leave certificate for an employer in compliance with the established requirements. But knowing what the doctor should write in the document is necessary to identify errors. The FSS will not accept an incorrectly completed form for payment.

In a medical institution, before handing the form to the patient, you must:

• put a mark indicating which form is being issued (primary or duplicate);
• enter the short name of the clinic (hospital), address and OGRN;
• enter information in the “Date of issue” field;
• indicate full name and the patient's date of birth;
• according to the patient, enter the name of the work organization;
• indicate for which place of work the document is issued (main or part-time);
• if the sheet is issued for the care of relatives, enter their full name. and degree of relationship;
• if the sheet is issued for pregnancy or a disabled employee, fill in the appropriate lines;
• enter the period of release, position, surname, initials into the table, and sign the doctor;
• indicate the date from which the patient begins work and affix the seal of the medical institution.

Electronic sick notes are generated in the Social Insurance Unified Insurance System; the patient is only informed of the number in the registry. Data on disability is available on the government services portal. The number must be provided to the employer.

Address of the medical organization

In the line “address of medical organization,” the doctor must indicate the address of his institution. This information is entered at intervals in one cell, the building number is indicated through the sign “/” (clause 58 of the Procedure approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n).

Even if the address is entered without following the usual sequence (city, street, house), this is not considered a violation. A medical organization can be identified by its OGRN (clause 8 of the letter of the Federal Insurance Service of Russia dated October 28, 2011 No. 14-03-18/15-12956).

Rules for filling out electronic sick leave certificates

Federal Law No. 86-FZ of May 1, 2017 provides for the issuance of sick leave certificates in electronic form. To ensure that any interested person has the opportunity to quickly obtain information about sick leave issued to a citizen, a special automated system has been created, the operator of which is the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia. By issuing a certificate of incapacity for work to a patient in electronic form, the doctor and medical institution certify it with enhanced qualified electronic signatures. The database is available to the Social Insurance Fund, medical institutions and all employers. The latter have the right to receive in their personal account information only about those citizens who are currently employed by them.

To process electronic documents, organizations and individual entrepreneurs need special software and the technical capability of electronic document management with the Social Insurance Fund. If the employer does not have such an opportunity, he refuses the electronic document and requests a paper version. The rest of the design follows a simplified scheme:

1. Registration in the policyholder's personal account. The easiest way is to register an employing organization through an account on the government services portal.
2. Authorization in the Social Insurance system and filling out a special card with the organization’s registration information.
3. Obtaining a sick leave number from a sick employee.
4. Access by number to an electronic document signed with a doctor’s enhanced digital signature and uploaded to the Social Insurance system.
5. Calculation of the amount of temporary disability benefits and entering the necessary data electronically.
6. Certification of entered information with an enhanced electronic signature.

To verify electronic sick leave certificates, an electronic digital signature is suitable, which is used for submitting electronic reports.

What happens if you don’t close your sick leave?

Sometimes a situation may arise in which an employee, for some reason, decided not to close an open sick leave or was unable to do so. Naturally, a completely logical question arises: is it possible to submit the document in this form? Regarding this situation, based on regulatory legislation, the following can be noted:

• a sick leave certificate that does not contain a note indicating its closure and, accordingly, if it does not contain all the necessary details, cannot be considered a basis for confirming the employee’s temporary disability;
• an unclosed sick leave cannot be accepted by the employer and used to mark absence from work due to illness on the report card;
• a sick leave without a closure mark cannot become the basis for the accrual of funds in accordance with the terms of social security;
• a medical worker who has not closed the patient’s sick leave has the right to cancel the certificate of incapacity for work and put a mark on it regarding violation of the hospital regime.

The procedure for closing sick leave is very important and can have a significant impact in determining the validity of this document. Only doctors admitted to such a procedure can mark the end of the illness, reflecting the mandatory details and affixing the stamps required for the certificate of incapacity for work.

Rules for filling out a paper form

There are established rules for filling out sick leave by a doctor, and employers adhere to the same rules when entering data on the calculation of benefits:

• letters are located within the cell without going beyond its edges or touching the edge;
• words are entered using a printing device or written by hand in capital letters;
• When filling out manually, black ink is used;
• the doctor must not make a mistake when filling out the form; if a mistake is made or the form is lost before being sent to work, the patient is given a duplicate;
• a copy is filled out on the same form, but marked “Duplicate”;
• the employer, unlike the doctor, corrects the error without replacing the form; this is done by simply crossing out; the correct data is written on the back of the document, certified by a signature, seal and the entry “Believe the corrected one.”

What mistakes are often made?

The most common violations when entering data into incapacity forms are:

• Folding or crumpling of the completed sheet is not allowed;
• The stamps affixed to the document should not affect the information in the cells. Otherwise, the scanner will not be able to read the data and the benefit will not be paid;
• If the period of illness exceeds thirty days, extension is possible only after examination by an expert commission;
• All seals and signatures must be present;
• In addition to the signature and seal of the attending physician, the seals and signatures of the heads of medical institutions must be present.

How to enter coronavirus quarantine data into sick leave

Let's figure out how to fill out a sick leave certificate for an employee who is in quarantine due to coronavirus. Such a document is valid for 14 days, since this period is officially accepted as the incubation period.

Employer action algorithm:

1. Check information from the medical institution.
2. Enter the required code in the “Reason of disability” field. For example, if an employee or his child is sick, you will need code 03. For special cases (isolation), enter 10.
3. Calculate the amount of payments. The financial issue is completely dealt with by the FSS. The fund pays the amount to the employee in installments: benefits for the first seven days are transferred the next day after the employer transmits information about the employee. Compensation for the remaining seven days is due within the next day after the end of quarantine.

Doctor's mistakes

Minor errors (violations) are allowed on the sick leave certificate. For example, when the sheet indicates an inaccurate name of the employing organization. A certificate of incapacity for work with an abbreviated (inaccurate) name of the organization is not considered damaged, and it can be accepted for payment (letter of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia dated March 26, 2013 No. 10-09/10/7103).

Violations in the preparation of certificates of incapacity for work committed by a medical institution, if they are remediable and insignificant in nature and were subsequently eliminated, cannot serve as a basis for refusal to reimburse benefits from the Social Insurance Fund of Russia. Moreover, even if the corrections to the sheet were made after the employee had been accrued and paid the benefit.

Such conclusions follow, in particular, from the determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated June 27, 2013 No. VAS-7506/13, and the resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the West Siberian District dated September 10, 2013 No. A27-1437/2013.

Situation: can the indication of the inaccurate name of the employing organization be considered a minor error?

Answer: yes, you can.

The FSS of Russia can identify it by registration number. A certificate of incapacity for work with an abbreviated (inaccurate) name of the organization is not considered damaged and can be accepted for payment. Similar clarifications are contained in the letter of the FSS of Russia dated March 26, 2013 No. 10-09/10/7103.

Situation: can the indication of such symbols in the name of an organization as dots, quotation marks, etc. be considered a minor error?

Answer: yes, you can.

Indication of quotation marks, periods, commas, and dashes in the names of organizations is also not considered a violation and is not a basis for re-issuing a sick leave certificate. Such clarifications are contained in paragraph 6 of the letter of the FSS of Russia dated October 28, 2011 No. 14-03-18/15-12956 and paragraph 1 of the letter of the FSS of Russia dated September 14, 2011 No. 14-03-11/15-8605.

Situation: is it necessary to correct the certificate of incapacity for work if the doctor left spaces between his initials when filling it out?

Answer: no, it is not necessary.

The presence of spaces between the doctor's initials is considered a technical defect.

The presence of technical deficiencies in filling out a certificate of incapacity for work is not a basis for its re-issuance and refusal to assign and pay benefits, if all entries are clear to read (clause 17 of the letter of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia dated October 28, 2011 No. 14-03-18/15 -12956).

Step-by-step instructions: how to apply for sick leave in 2021 on paper

After receiving a certificate of incapacity for work at a clinic or hospital, the employee hands it over to the employer. The latter’s task is to fill out the bottom section of the form. Our guide will help the employee of the organization who is responsible for calculating benefits and filling out accounting documentation not to make mistakes when entering data according to the new rules. The instructions will be useful if an employee asked for a paper document and refused the electronic format.

Let's look at a step-by-step example of filling out a sick leave certificate by an employer in 2021 on a paper form.

Step 1. Place of work

The name of the company is entered in this field. The FSS recommends providing the short name of the organization, if any. When there is no abbreviated name, and the full name does not fit on the line, the name is interrupted mid-sentence. You should not go beyond the cells. One cell is skipped between words.

Step 2. Employment status

You need to put a mark that will indicate the status of the place of work: main or part-time. An employee who works part-time has the right to submit a certificate of incapacity for work to two organizations. To do this, he requests two forms from the doctor.

Step 3. Registration number of the company in the Social Insurance Fund

In this field enter the number assigned to the organization when registering with the Social Insurance Fund. The FSS assigns the number independently after receiving information from the tax service about the registration of the enterprise. A notification of registration with a registration number is sent to the legal address of the company by mail. If the notification is lost during transmission, you must apply for notification again. In addition, there are monitoring systems that help find out the registration number in the Social Insurance Fund using the organization’s TIN. The number is assigned once and does not change.

Step 4. Subordination code

The subordination code indicates the territorial number of the Social Insurance Fund to which the organization is attached. It consists of 4 digits if the FSS does not have a branch. The regional branch of the fund has a 5-digit code.

Step 5. Employee Taxpayer Identification Number

The employee's TIN is indicated only if it is available.

Step 6. SNILS of the employee

Insurance number of the employee's personal account in the Pension Fund.

Step 7. Accrual conditions

The line contains coded data about special conditions for the calculation and payment of benefits. The codes are given on the back of the form. The benefit is calculated differently for patients:

• affected by radiation (code 43);
• workers of the North (code 44);
• disabled people (code 45);
• citizens working for less than 6 months (code 46);
• citizens who fell ill within 30 days after dismissal (code 47);
• persons who violated the regime for a good reason (code 48);
• disabled people who have been ill for more than 4 months in a row (code 49);
• disabled people who are sick for more than 5 months a year (code 50);
• citizens working part-time (code 51).

Two-digit codes are entered only if the appropriate conditions exist. In other cases, the line remains empty. When combining conditions, several codes are set.

Step 8. Act form N-1

The line is filled in only if the injury for which a certificate of incapacity was issued was received at work. Then the date of drawing up the act that records the incident is recorded in these cells. In other cases, the field remains empty; the rules for filling out sick leave by an employer in 2021 in this part have not changed.

Step 9. Start date

The column is filled in only when canceling a contract with an employee. Management has the right to cancel an employment contract if the employee does not show up for work on time. He is entitled to sickness benefits. Enter the start date of work under the employment contract in the field.

Step 10. Insurance experience

The citizen’s total insurance experience is entered in the column - the time during which he is insured and makes contributions to the Social Insurance Fund. This is usually the time spent working under employment contracts. Periods of military, civil service or service in the police department are also included in the insurance period.

If the length of service is equal to the full number of years, the fields are filled in as follows:

If the number is incomplete, indicate years and months:

Step 11. Non-insurance periods

Non-insurance periods - time of military service, starting from 01/01/2007. If the service began earlier than this date and ended later, only the period from 01/01/2007 until its actual end is included in the column. The number of complete years and months of military service is indicated. Non-insurance periods are included in the total insurance period.

Step 12. Benefit accrual period

The line contains the calendar period of absence of the sick employee due to illness - the opening and closing dates of the sick leave.

Step 13. Average earnings

To calculate the average salary of an employee, the easiest way is to use an online sick leave calculator. Average earnings for calculating benefits are calculated for the two previous calendar years.

Step 14. Average earnings per day

Since benefits are calculated on calendar days, to calculate daily earnings, the total amount earned over 2 years is divided by the number of calendar days in two years (730). The result is the employee’s average daily earnings.

Step 15. Benefit amount from the employer's funds

By law, if an employee becomes ill or injured, the employer pays for the first three days of sick leave from his own funds. The rest of the benefit is paid by the Social Insurance Fund directly based on the organization’s data. When issuing a certificate of incapacity for work for other reasons (pregnancy and childbirth or injuries), the entire amount of the benefit is paid by the Social Insurance Fund - this is the procedure prescribed by law.

Step 16. Benefit amount from the Social Insurance Fund

The Social Insurance Fund transfers benefits to citizens from its own funds for all days of illness, except for the first three. If sick leave is issued for patient care, prosthetics, treatment in a sanatorium or due to quarantine, then the entire amount comes from the Fund.

Step 17. Total amount

The final amount of the benefit will be calculated by an online calculator. This can be easily done manually by multiplying the number of sick days by the employee’s average daily earnings and percentages depending on length of service.

Step 18. Full name manager and accountant of the organization

In a separate field, enter the surname and initials of the head of the company without dots. A signature is placed opposite them. The field below is intended to indicate the surname, initials and signature of the chief accountant. If the company does not have the position of chief accountant and his duties are performed by a manager, then the name and signature of the manager are duplicated.

Step 19. Employer Stamp

The completed sick leave form is certified with the round seal of the organization. It is important that the seal impression does not fall on the filled cells, blocking the information, otherwise the scanner will not be able to read it.

Filling out by employer

According to current legislation, the employer is responsible for the payment of monetary compensation when issuing certificates of incapacity.

He can make changes in the part of the form assigned to him. However, he does not have the right to correct the data entered by the attending physician.

If an error was discovered by the doctor filling out the document, the sick leave will be returned for replacement. Otherwise, the certificate of incapacity will not be accepted by the social insurance authorities, and the sick employee will not be able to receive his compensation.

Initially, you need to check the terms for granting time off for treatment indicated in the form:

Correct registration of sick leave by the company that provides the employee with a workplace occurs according to the following standards:

Having correctly completed this document, the personnel officer needs to provide the Social Insurance Fund with an accounting statement containing information about the amount of funds required for monetary compensation for sick leave.

In a situation, if an accountant makes a mistake and notices it, he can make adjustments. The only caveat is that there should be no more than two.

Minimum and maximum benefits

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the need to support citizens, the amount of temporary disability benefits has been limited.

IMPORTANT!

In 2021, the minimum benefit amount is set at a level not lower than the minimum wage.

The maximum amount of payments is limited according to the old rules. The question arises of how to fill out sick leave from the minimum wage in 2021, adhering to the rules given above, but with one important nuance. In place of average earnings, the accountant puts the minimum wage at 12,792 rubles, provided that the employee’s average earnings are lower. The benefit is calculated from the daily minimum wage, which is considered as normal average daily earnings.

Sick leave for pregnancy and childbirth

Issued by a medical institution. The doctor indicates the reason for issuing the certificate of incapacity for work and notes the period for registration for pregnancy - up to 12 weeks.

Filling out the form by the employer in this case differs from the above in only one way: the line “Benefit amount: at the expense of the employer” is left blank, because payment is made at the expense of the Social Insurance Fund.

Information provided by the doctor

The medical worker fills out the following sections of the certificate of incapacity for work:

– “To be completed by a doctor of a medical organization”;

– “To be filled out by a doctor and remains with the medical organization.”

This is stated in paragraphs 56–63 of the Procedure approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n.

The doctor puts o in the following lines:

• “primary” - if sick leave in relation to a given case of disability is issued for the first time (paragraph 2, paragraph 57 of the Procedure, approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n);

• “duplicate” – if you have to re-issue a certificate of incapacity for work to replace a lost or damaged one.

The doctor fills out the line “continuation of certificate of incapacity for work No.” if he issues another bulletin in continuation of the previous one. Then in this field he puts the number of the previous certificate of incapacity for work. Such rules are established in paragraph 57 of the Procedure, approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated June 29, 2011 No. 624n.

Which pen should I use to fill it out?

Black ink is used. Order No. 624n of the Ministry of Health and Social Development allows filling out a sick leave sheet only with a gel, capillary or fountain pen. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in 2015 came to the conclusion that the use of a ballpoint pen when filling out is only a technical defect that does not affect the payment of benefits. The main thing is that using a ballpoint pen does not lead to illegibility of the writing. The RF Armed Forces ordered the Social Insurance Fund to accept for payment the sick leave, which the doctor filled out with a ballpoint pen. In this case, the employer, noticing the error, contacted the medical institution for a duplicate. Despite the court's approval, in order to avoid disputes with the FSS, it is advisable not to use a ballpoint pen to fill out forms.

Sample of filling out a sick leave certificate by an employer in 2021

Additional design tips

In order for FSS employees to be guaranteed to accept the issued sick leave and for the employer to make payment according to it, the disability form must be completed as correctly as possible.

If questions arise during filling out and registration, if it is not clear what to write in certain cells or columns, accounting employees have the right to seek clarification from the normative and legal acts established today. You can ask questions to employees working at the Social Insurance Fund at any time. For such requests, they provide helpful oral or written advice.

Who fills it out: accountant or personnel officer

Those responsible for filling out sick leave are the head and chief accountant of the organization. They sign the completed form. Filling out a document or checking its correctness is the task of those officials whose signature certifies the completed form. In some cases, entering certain data is the responsibility of the personnel officer; he indicates, for example, the name of the company, insurance experience and other information not related to accounting. The job description of the personnel officer must provide for these powers, otherwise it is unlawful to require him to fill out a sick leave form.