Ill for More Than Six Weeks

What happens after six weeks of illness?

Your employer's continued pay ends after six weeks, that is after 42 calendar days of the same illness. After that your statutory health insurer pays sick pay.

The six weeks count from the first day of incapacity for work, weekends and public holidays included. An entitlement to continued pay only arises after four weeks of continuous employment.

If you later fall ill with something else, a separate six-week period begins for that new illness. For the same illness the twelve-month rule applies: a new entitlement only arises if you were fit for work for at least six months in between or twelve months have passed since the first incapacity for work.

The six weeks in detail: who pays, how much, what applies in a mini-job →

How much is sick pay?

It amounts to 70 per cent of your regular gross pay, but no more than 90 per cent of your net pay. Your contributions to pension, unemployment and long-term care insurance are then deducted from that amount.

In the end most people end up at around 75 to 80 per cent of their previous net income. There is a statutory ceiling, because sick pay is calculated from the contribution assessment limit.

For the same illness it is paid for at most 78 weeks within three years, with the six weeks of continued pay counted towards that. When that period runs out, it is called Aussteuerung.

Why does the certificate have to be gapless?

Because the entitlement hangs on the certificate. Sick pay is granted up to the day the doctor has certified. Anyone who gets the follow-up certificate too late risks a gap, and a gap can cost the entitlement for the time after it.

Case law has become friendlier to patients over the years, but you should not rely on that. The safe rule is: the follow-up certificate is issued on the next working day after the last certified day at the latest, and preferably before.

In practice that means arranging the follow-up appointment during the current one, not on the day the certificate runs out.

Does this work by video consultation too?

For a follow-up certificate in a longer illness this is not the right route. Whether a single follow-up certificate is possible is decided by the doctor after a further examination in a follow-up appointment; anyone unable to work for weeks needs a doctor who knows them, examines them and directs the treatment.

There is also a practical reason: for sick pay your health insurer needs a notification of the incapacity for work. Panel doctors transmit it electronically; private certificates you have to submit yourself. For something running over months, the panel-doctor route is simply the more reliable one.

The video consultation is meant for the other case: the short, acute illness for which no appointment is free.

A private certificate with statutory insurance: what applies →