Therapeutic part-time work (France)
A medically prescribed return to work on reduced hours, during which social security pays partial daily benefits that group protection may top up.
Therapeutic part-time work, long called therapeutic half-time, allows an employee to return to work on reduced hours when their health justifies it, either to aid recovery or to ease rehabilitation. It is prescribed by the treating doctor, agreed by the employer and validated by the health insurance medical adviser. During this period, the employee receives a salary pro rata to working time and partial daily benefits from social security, up to the previous salary. Since 1 January 2019, it is no longer necessary to have been on full sick leave immediately beforehand to access it in the case of an ordinary illness. For group protection, the question is whether the policy compensates this intermediate situation. Many group contracts top up daily benefits to a guaranteed salary level, but individual contracts, notably those of the self-employed, sometimes define incapacity as total, which rules out any payment once work partly resumes. For the insurer, therapeutic part-time work is a risk management tool: a gradual return shortens absences and reduces transitions into disability, which justifies funding it rather than discouraging it.
Hypothetical case: after six months off for depression, an employee returns at 50 percent. He receives half his salary and partial daily benefits; his company's protection plan tops up to 90 percent of his net salary, and he returns full-time four months later.
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