Elimination period
The number of days of work absence during which no daily benefit is payable, set against statutory sick pay and the compulsory scheme.
In France, the general social security scheme pays daily allowances from the fourth day off work. Statutory salary continuation applies after seven days since the law of June 25, 2008, which cut that period from ten days: pay now starts on the eighth day of absence instead of the eleventh. The elimination period of a protection contract is the first stretch of sick leave during which it pays nothing. It is set against those two layers, and group contracts fix it at 30, 60 or 90 days, when contractual salary continuation runs out. Together with benefit duration and level, it drives most of the price of incapacity cover. Badly set, it leaves an income gap between the end of salary continuation and the start of benefits. Or it creates an overlap the insured pays for in vain, since the indemnity principle forbids receiving more than the loss. A continuous elimination period requires an unbroken absence of the stated number of days; a cumulative one adds up absences from the same cause over a reference period, which is what matters for conditions that recur. Without an elimination period, short absences, frequent and costly to handle, would price the cover out of reach.
In France the general scheme pays daily benefits from the fourth day of absence, a three-day waiting period. For non-occupational absences, the act of June 25, 2008 cut the waiting period for statutory salary continuation from ten to seven days, so it now starts on the eighth day of absence instead of the eleventh. Group contracts accordingly set their elimination period at 30, 60 or 90 days, that is, at the point where contractual salary continuation runs out.
- Law no. 2008-596 of June 25, 2008 amending Article L. 1226-1 of the French Labor Code; Labor Code, Article D. 1226-3 (seven-day waiting period); Apicil, "Maintien de salaire : la loi de mensualisation expliquée" (pay from the 8th day, 11th day before the 2008 law)
Follow the research
One letter a week. First, the week's underwriting note, when one is published: a dated, argued decision, signed by Paul Bernardski. Then what the observatory published on cyber risk, political risk and insurance. No account, no tracking.
No spam, one-click unsubscribe, no data ever sold.