Elimination period

The elimination period is the initial stretch of a work absence during which the protection contract pays nothing, and it is one of the two or three parameters that drive most of the price of a disability benefit. Its length is not chosen in the abstract: it is set against whatever already covers the first days, namely the compulsory scheme's daily benefits and the employer's statutory duty to continue salary. A badly set period creates either an income gap between the end of salary continuation and the start of benefit, or a duplication the insured pays for without gain, since the indemnity principle bars collecting more than the loss suffered. It comes in a continuous form, requiring the absence to run unbroken for the stated number of days, and a discontinuous form, which aggregates absences from one cause over a reference period, a distinction that matters greatly for relapsing conditions. The problem solved is the administrative cost and high frequency of short absences, which would make the cover unaffordable if it paid from day one.

In France the general scheme pays daily benefits from the fourth day of absence, a three day waiting period, and the act of June 25, 2008 cut from eleven to seven days the delay before statutory salary continuation for non-occupational absences. Group contracts accordingly set their elimination period at 30, 60 or 90 days, that is, at the point where contractual salary continuation runs out.

délai de franchise en prévoyance, franchise continue