Sick leave
Sick notes (Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigungen) are now transmitted electronically from the doctor’s office to your health insurance provider. Your employer can generally retrieve the relevant information from the health insurance provider. Nevertheless, please send us an email with the start date and expected end date of your sick leave, as we do not automatically receive this information from your health insurance provider. We need an exact period in order to request the information from your health insurance provider. Please also let us know if the expected end date of your sick leave changes.
Please note: During your sick leave, you generally cannot process assignments through your employment relationship with Smart.
Sick pay at Smart eG
If you are employed by Smart eG and become ill:
- you will generally continue to receive your employment income for up to six weeks.
- At Smart, this employment income is paid from your budget for the first six weeks.
- From the seventh week of illness, employees with statutory health insurance can generally receive sickness benefits (Krankengeld) from their health insurance provider. Sickness benefits generally amount to 70% of gross employment income, but no more than 90% of net employment income.
Sick pay at Smart Bildungswerk
If you are employed by Smart Bildungswerk and become ill, you are generally entitled to continued payment of your employment income by your employer for up to six weeks.
Smart Bildungswerk participates in the U1 statutory reimbursement scheme. Under certain conditions, this allows Smart, as the employer, to have part of the costs of continued payment of employment income reimbursed by the health insurance provider.
At Smart, this reimbursement is credited to the budget of the employed member. It can therefore help offset financial losses resulting from illness-related absence and the assignments that cannot be carried out as a result.
If you are employed by Smart Bildungswerk and are unable to work due to illness and therefore cannot carry out assignments, please inform us by email of your incapacity for work and its expected duration.
Child sickness allowance
If your child is ill and you are therefore unable to work, you can apply for child sickness benefit (Kinderkrankengeld) from your health insurance provider if you meet the statutory requirements. Child sickness benefit is paid by your health insurance provider and generally replaces the employment income you lose as a result. It generally amounts to 90% of your lost net employment income. In 2026, parents are generally entitled to up to 15 working days per child covered by statutory health insurance and per parent, or up to 30 working days for single parents.
Please inform us as your employer without delay if you are unable to work because you need to care for your sick child. Submit the required certificate for child sickness benefit to your health insurance provider.
As your employment contract excludes claims to continued payment of remuneration under Section 616 of the German Civil Code (BGB) (see Section 6 (3) of your employment contract), you generally do not receive remuneration from Smart for this period. Instead, if the relevant requirements are met, you may receive child sickness benefit from your health insurance provider.