New job? Newly born baby? Inform the authorities
- Have you lost or quit your job recently and registered as an active job seeker at the labour office?
- Have you changed employers?
- Have you become self-employed?
- Have you been blessed with a baby and, subsequently, started collecting maternity or parental benefit?
- Have you come back to your job after maternity or parental leave?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you should inform your health insurance company about the change. At the same time, you should also let the local social security office know. You’re not required by law, but we strongly recommend doing so anyway. Why?
Both offices need to be informed about your current employment and family status and all its changes, so they can expect the payment for your health and social insurance to come from the correct source. (From your employer? From the state (benefits) or from yourself (self-employment)?)
By law, someone else should inform the institutions, not you. It is the labour office or your new employer who holds the obligation. In practise though, it often happens that they only report the change in a month or two, or, sometimes, never. Regarding your employer, the HR department often has fixed periods of informing the offices and the breaks between them tend to be big. As for the labour office, it happens because they’re super busy processing many applications for state support they receive in these complicated times.
To avoid trouble, we recommend you take the initiative and inform the two institutions on your own. It isn’t complicated, just a matter of writing a short email.
How?
Write a short email containing: your name, local address, Czech birth number (or your date of birth) and a clarification of what has changed in your life. The text has to be written in Czech, but grammatical mistakes are not a problem, so you can write it yourself with the help of an online translation machine.
Do not forget to attach a document confirming the change of your job or family status. Depending on what changed in your life, it can be a confirmation of the registration as an active job seeker, the new employment contract, your new trade licence or the confirmation that you have started/stopped collecting a maternity/parental benefit. Attach your Czech residence permit (if you have it), too.
Google your insurance company’s email address. For the social security office, these are their contact details for Brno.
Why?
This email won’t cost you more than a few minutes to write. Later, it can help you a lot, when the time comes to calculate your benefits. Ensure that the institutions are well-informed about the source of money for your health and social insurance throughout your stay in Brno, and avoid complicated validating later.
P.S.: You don’t necessarily need to inform the two institutions if your employment or family status changed a long time ago. The labour office or the employer has most likely informed them already or the clerks have figured it out themselves. However, if the change in your life occurred in the last few months and if it still lasts, we recommend you do it.