One of the rights granted to insured employees in the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Code No. 5510, which is the basic law of Turkish Social Insurance Law, is “temporary incapacity allowance”.
Incapacity for work is the name given to the temporary inability of an insured employee to work during a period of rest, based on physician or medical board reports, as a result of illness, work accident, occupational illness, or pregnancy.
In this regard, temporary incapacity allowance is the financial aid paid by the Social Security Institution (SSI) to compensate for the loss of income the insured people experience while they are unable to work due to a work accident, occupational disease, illness or pregnancy.
Temporary incapacity allowance is calculated by dividing the total earnings subject to premium for the last 3 months in the last 12 months before the date of receipt of the sickness report by the number of premium payment days in the last 3 months. In inpatient treatments, half of the insured’s daily premium-based earnings calculated in this way, and in outpatient treatments, two-thirds are paid as daily temporary incapacity allowance, as to compensate the loss of earning of the insured, at least partially.
Temporary Incapacity Allowance is paid starting from the first day of incapacitation for work accidents and occupational diseases, and starting from the third day of incapacitation for other diseases.
Calculation of Temporary Incapacity Allowance
Let’s explain the calculation of temporary incapacity allowance with an example: Let’s assume that the monthly premium-based earnings of an insured employee who is temporarily disabled for five days without being hospitalized due to a work accident is 36,000 Turkish Liras and the number of premium payment days within the last three month is 90 days. In this situation the calculation will be made as follows:
- 36,000 × 3 = 108,000 TRL (Total earnings based on premium in the last three months)
- 108,000 / 90 = 1,200 TRL (Daily earning based on premium)
In this case, the insured employee’s daily incapacity allowance is calculated as follows:
- Inpatient treatment payment: 1.200 / 2 = 600 TL (Daily)
- Outpatient treatment payment: (1.200 / 3)x 2 = 800 TL (Daily)
- The amount of allowance the insured in the example will receive is 800 x 5 = 4,000 TL (Five-day total).
