Sick while on parental leave
Here, you can learn what to do if you get sick during your parental leave.
Can I receive sickness benefit if I get sick?
If you become ill and cannot take care of your child, you can pause your parental benefit and receive sickness benefit instead.
You may be entitled to sickness benefit if:
- you are sick and someone else is taking care of your child instead
- have a sickness benefit qualifying income (SGI).
During the first two weeks that you are sick, you can only receive sickness benefit on the days for which you applied for parental benefit. You must have applied for parental benefit before you became ill.
You can receive 25, 50, 75 or 100 percent sickness benefit.
What should I do if I get sick?
1. Report your sickness
Report your sickness the very first day you are sick.
2. Change your application for parental benefit
Log in to My pages (My pages) and remove the days for which you applied for parental benefit, starting from the day you reported your sickness.
3. Apply for sickness benefit
After reporting your sickness, log in to My pages (Mina sidor) to apply for sickness benefit.
4. Submit a doctor's certificate
If you are sick for more than 7 days, you need to submit a doctor's certificate with information about your illness or injury. Ask your doctor to send the certificate directly to Försäkringskassan. It is done electronically. You can also find your certificate on 1177 Vårdguiden under Mina intyg.
Intyg (1177.se)
External link, opens in new window.
If you prefer to post your certificate yourself, please send it to:
Försäkringskassans Inläsningscentral
839 88 Östersund.
5. Disbursement
Information about when you receive your payments:
Utbetalningsdatum och handläggningstider (in Swedish)
External link.
If you want to change any aspect of your sick leave
If your sick leave shall continue in the same scope, you can extend your sick leave by sending in a new doctor's certificate. You can do this digitally on Mina intyg on 1177 Vårdguiden.
Intyg (1177.se) External link, opens in new window.
You must have approved that all doctor's certificates in the same sickness period shall apply as an application for sickness benefit. If you have not done this, you must fill in a new application. Contact your administrative officer or contact the Customer Centre at 0771‑524 524 to approve all doctor's certificates in the sickness period applying as an application for sickness benefit.
What should I do once I'm healthy again?
1. Report your recovery
If someone else needs to take care of your child while you are sick
If you become sick during your parental leave, someone else can receive compensation from Försäkringskassan if they take care of your child. The rules vary depending on how old the child is and whether you have sole custody or not.
If the child is older than 240 days
The other parent can apply for compensation for care of a child. To receive compensation for care of a child, the other parent must stay home from work or refrain from collecting the daily benefit from unemployment insurance.
Bear in mind that you cannot receive parental benefit for a day when someone else is taking care of the child instead of you. Do not forget to log in to My pages (Mina sidor) and remove the days that the other parent cared for the child from your application for parental benefit.
If the child is younger than 240 days
The other parent can take out parental benefit instead and stay at home to care for the child.
If you have sole custody
If you have sole custody and the child is younger than 3 years old, a friend or relative can take care of the child instead of you. This is called expanded temporary parental benefit. The friend or relative is only eligible to receive compensation if they lost income. Call the Customer Centre at 0771‑524 524 to request a form for the person who is caring for the child.
