Ošetřovné for self-employed parents only for children above 6 years of age during the Coronavirus outbreak. The minister of labour and social affairs, Jana Máláčová, is not supporting the proposal of The Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Despite the government‘s agreement about ošetřovné for self-employed parents (samostatně výdělečně činné -OSVČ), there is no clarity on the age group of children this will cover. The agreed proposal only includes children from 6 to 13 years of age. However, the minister of labour and social affairs, Jana Maláčová, is demanding a change. The Minister of Industry and Trade, Karel Havlíček, promised that OSVČ will not be disadvantaged.
Minister Jana Maláčová is unhappy about the decision of The Ministry of Industry and Trade that includes Ošetřovné care for children from only from 6 – 13 years of age if one is self-employed. She will ask the minister Havlíček to reconsider his original proposal. “When they can do it for employed parents, they can include self-employed too,“ she added.
The government extended the ošetřovné (nursing care allowance) for employed parents during the COVID emergency and for the entire period of school closure, for all children up to 13 years of age. But the law doesn’t state the minimum age limit.
The standard is from 3 years to 13 years of age
“It all depends on the individual situation of each parent. But generally speaking, unless the parent isn’t already claiming parental leave (rodičovský příspěvek) he/she is eligible to receive the benefit for a child between 3 -13 years of age. In case, the parent has already used up all his/her parental leave during the 1st year of their child’s life and both parents are employed then they can claim ošetřovné even for a young child,“ explained Jana Maláčová.
But the situation is different for OSVČ. The ministry of industry and trade responsible for paying self-employed parents is planning to only include children between the ages 6 to 13 years. However, minister Havlíček stated that he will demand the same conditions both for OSVČ and employed parents.
OSVČ will not be disadvantaged
“The original proposal was aimed at school children, but in the end we have also included younger children. I can promise that the conditions of ošetřovné will be the same for both groups of parents. OSVČ cannot be disadvantaged“ minister Havlíček wrote.
Jana Maláčová appreciates the change, but she points to the fact that the situation is very chaotic. “The situation has changed three times already and I really wish it all became finally clear,” she added.
Minister Havlíček also added that their ministry will be guided by the proposal of The Ministry of Labour and Social affairs and what will be in the end agreed by the Chamber of Deputies (Sněmovnou).
Ošetřovné for children up to 15 years of age is also at stake
While the proposal about ošetřovné for OSVČ only needs to be agreed upon by the government, the proposed extended age limit of ošetřovné for employees needs to go through a whole change of law. For this, Sněmovna will be holding a special meeting on Tuesday. It is expected that the meeting will be exceptionally long as The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has already received up to 12 proposed changes. It is expected that the actual law will in the end go through changes. Minister Maláčová was for example originally proposing to include all children up to the age of 15, and it is possible her proposal might still receive support during the meeting.
Ošetřovné should always be paid every month and both ministries would like to make their first payments starting in April.
Ošetřovné for employees is 60% of the base salary. OSVČ should then receive Kč 424 for every day, so overall it should be around Kč 14 000 a month says minister Havlíček.
Source
This article has been kindly translated from source by Jana Nemcova for Littlepanda.cz