Sickness allowance: Duration of new payments

NIT123A

Theme

Illness / Sickness allowances

Data content

Sickness allowance is paid on the basis of incapacity for work due to illness.

A period of sickness allowance or partial sickness allowance is considered to have commenced when a person after the waiting period (the day of falling ill and the 9 following working days) starts receiving sickness allowance. A person may during the year have several new periods of sickness allowance or partial sickness allowance.

The data of the statistics include persons who during the statistical reference year have received the first payment of a period of sickness allowance or partial sickness allowance.

The statistics on new periods of sickness allowance include

• New periods. Number of new periods of sickness allowance or partial sickness allowance,
• Duration of period, days. The duration of a period is stated as the average duration of the periods of sickness allowance per period. The duration is calculated by dividing the reimbursed days of the new periods of sickness allowance during the statistical reference year by the number of these periods. The duration of the period includes the number of reimbursed days of sickness allowance for the period by the end of the period. The statistics on the duration of new periods are compiled after the end of the year following the year of commencement; sickness allowance can be paid for a maximum of 300 days. The average duration of periods of partial sickness allowance is calculated in the same manner. Partial sickness allowance can be paid for a maximum of 120 working days.
• Average compensation per day, euros/day. The average compensation per day is calculated as the sum of the daily compensations which the first payments are based on divided by the number of new periods of sickness allowance.

Variables and classifications

• Main disease category. The data on the first payment of sickness allowances and partial sickness allowances that have been paid out during the statistical reference year and the duration of the period are included in the statistics for the main disease category (ICD-10 classification) into which the disease which caused the incapacity for work is categorised
• The benefit category variable describes the act or section of law on which the payment of sickness allowance is based. The categories of the variable are sickness allowance and partial sickness allowance.
  Sickness allowance and partial sickness allowance under the Health Insurance Act are paid after the waiting period or directly following sickness allowance/partial sickness allowance or rehabilitation allowance. Partial sickness allowance is paid to persons who work part-time.
• Time period. The variable indicates the year during which the periods of sickness allowance and partial sickness allowance which the statistics refer to have commenced.
• Geographical focus.The smallest unit is the municipality, from which larger units are formed. New periods of sickness allowance and partial sickness allowance are included in the statistics for a certain municipality for the persons who had the municipality in question as their municipality of residence at the end of the statistical reference year.

Statistical reference period

From 2006.

Updating frequency

The data for the year preceding the previous year are updated annually in January.

Data source

Kela –The Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Statistical registers (total material) produced from the sickness allowance benefits system.

Additional information

Additional information on sickness allowances is available at www.kela.fi under Our Services » Sickness » Sickness allowances » Sickness allowance and at the same address under About Kela » Statistics » Statistics by topic » Sickness allowance.

Contact information

Kela, Statistical Information Service
Email: tilastot@kela.fi