Instructions: how to check the authenticity of a sick leave certificate

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A certificate of incapacity for work is needed to confirm that the employee missed work for a good reason. Based on sick leave, temporary disability benefits are issued and the amount of benefits paid by the employer is compensated. If FSS employees discover that the document has been falsified, expenses will not be reimbursed.

There are many sites on the Internet that offer the issuance of a fake certificate of incapacity for work. To protect your organization, verify the authenticity of sick leave.

Why check

A certificate of incapacity for work officially confirms absence from work for a valid reason.
Illness of an employee or members of his family, long-term treatment, operations, restorative procedures, rehabilitation - all these are grounds for issuing sick leave. Temporary disability forms are issued only by official medical institutions - public hospitals and private clinics that are licensed to issue sick leave. And employers have the opportunity to check sick leave online by barcode or number. A sick leave certificate is the only document that exempts you from work and compensates for the costs of treatment. Employees try to formalize it not only for its intended purpose, but also for their own benefit. It looks like this: the employee negotiates with a doctor he knows so that he can take sick leave for the days he is absent (not due to illness). This option is possible and not even prohibited, but not all doctors are ready to take such a risk.

There is now an option for issuing fake sick leave. They promise that it looks like the real thing. But that's not true. An experienced accountant will distinguish a fake from the original. If visually everything is in order, the received form is identical to the verified certificates of incapacity for work and the specialist does not have any suspicions, then the document is not checked. But you should not trust only your feelings; it is advisable to check the sick leave certificate for authenticity according to all the rules. If anything confuses you, then run a check. Just hurry up - the accountant has 10 days to send the calculation, which means you can check it within this period.

Electronic sick leave certificates and registers issued in those regions where the pilot project operates are not checked. In such cases, the sick leave is sent directly to the Social Insurance Fund, where it will be verified by the Social Insurance Fund experts themselves.

Consequences of employee dishonesty for the employer

Providing sick leave by an employee is a legal basis for paying the employee money, as well as for the person’s absence from work. If a citizen presents a forged document to the organization, significant damage is caused. In this case, the perpetrator is obliged to answer according to the law.

After presenting the certificate, the employee is paid for the entire period of incapacity for work. It is not always possible to detect the fact of counterfeiting, since:

• modern technology makes it possible to produce forms that are difficult to distinguish from real ones;
• Often, adjustments are made to the numbers on the original form to extend the period of the disease;
• Employees often collude with doctors who issue sick leave even in the absence of illness.

It is often difficult to detect a fake document. Sometimes it takes a long time before it is established that an employee is guilty of forgery.

Consequences for the employer if an employee provides false sick leave:

1. These sheets act as an excellent “screen” for systematic absenteeism.
2. Their payment is carried out at the expense of the employer, only then these expenses are covered by the Social Insurance Fund. If a counterfeit is detected, the Fund does not pay these benefits, therefore, the organization suffers financial losses.
3. During the duration of the sick leave, it is necessary to redistribute the responsibilities of the absentee among other employees or hire a new employee. This leads to significant losses and expenses for the organization.

That is why the personnel officer is obliged to carefully check the submitted sheets for falsification. This will minimize the incurrence of additional unnecessary expenses.

Actions of the employer upon detection of a fake sick leave certificate

The closed sheet is presented to the personnel officer or accountant. As soon as doubts arise regarding a document, it is necessary to check it. It is as follows:

• request information from the medical organization about the issuance of the sheet;
• check the document through FSS resources.

If information about the counterfeit of the sheet is confirmed, the employee who discovers this must act according to the instructions of the organization and in accordance with the law. The organization makes its own decision on how to punish the offending employee. The offender may be fired or prosecuted under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The fact of identifying a false document must be reported to the FSS.

Ways to check

There is no single verification methodology. There are many ways to spot a fake. Some of them give clear results immediately, others require time. If an accountant has the opportunity, it is better to use not one, but several verification procedures. To identify a fake, you can:

• conduct an analysis of the visual compliance required by this strict reporting form;
• contact the medical institution that issued the form;
• check the certificate of incapacity for work by number online through the territorial branch of the Social Insurance Fund;
• send a letter to the regional Social Insurance Fund with a request to verify sick leave;
• check by barcode: run your finger over the surface of the barcode or illuminate the form in an ultraviolet lamp.

The most effective way is to control counterfeits through the Social Insurance Fund. Sometimes only external verification is enough; counterfeit forms differ significantly from the original ones.

Instructions: check by external signs

Visual verification is an instant identification of authenticity at the time of receipt of a sick leave certificate. This is done at work - in the office of an accountant or director. Here's how to check sick leave at work:

• compare the submitted certificate of incapacity for work with those forms that were accepted and paid for by the Social Insurance Fund (that is, which are proven to be genuine);
• check all required attributes - watermarks, microfibers, microtexts;
• shine the document through ultraviolet light (you can use a device to check money);
• check the barcode;
• try the thickness of the paper.

Certificates of incapacity for work are strict reporting forms. Its form was approved by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development No. 347n dated April 26, 2011.

They are printed in a special printing house, so they are all identical and have certain visual features. The rules for filling out the sheet are uniform and enshrined at the legislative level (Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development No. 624n dated June 29, 2011). Here's what to check immediately upon receiving the document:

The sick leave certificate has a high protection class (class B), so checking its authenticity by visual signs is not difficult. But this is not always enough. To identify authenticity, use special services of the FSS.

Sick leave codes and their interpretation

The only document that gives an employee the official right to be absent from the workplace in the event of incapacity for work is a sick leave certificate. Any illnesses, work-related or domestic injuries, pregnancy - causes of incapacity for work - are indicated on the sick leave in a special way. These are the so-called sick leave codes.

The sick leave form is established by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation No. 347n dated April 26, 2011. On its reverse side there is a decoding of the codes for correct registration.

The following information is required to complete the form:

The opening of a sick leave may be primary or as a continuation of a previously issued one. If the completed form is lost, the medical organization issues a duplicate of it, and a corresponding note is made in the header of the new form. In addition to the information that is filled out on the certificate of incapacity for work in block letters and numbers in the form of words and dates, there are a number of codes for displaying certain ciphers.

Instructions: request to a medical institution

Here is another option on how to check the authenticity of a sick leave certificate through a request to a medical institution:

1. If this is a commercial clinic, call the Social Insurance Fund (or the clinic itself) and clarify whether this healthcare organization has the right to issue sick leave.
2. If so, call the private clinic itself (contact the attending physician) and find out whether a particular patient was treated in the organization.
3. If the clinic refuses to provide information (and this is quite possible), citing the confidentiality of the relationship between the patient and the doctor, form an official request addressed to the chief physician of the institution. Be sure to attach a copy of your sick leave certificate.
4. The organization is obliged to respond to an official request, so the accountant is simply waiting for a response.
5. In the case of a public clinic or hospital, the procedure is similar. The only difference is that budgetary medical institutions are more willing to provide information, because they understand the risks.

Verifying the authenticity of a sick leave certificate at a medical institution is far from the most effective option. The procedure is long, and scammers have learned to bypass basic difficulties when interacting with government clinics.

Instructions: check by number on the FSS website

The fastest and, in fact, the most accurate way is to check the sick leave certificate online by number. Check the authenticity of the certificate of incapacity for work on the official website of the Social Insurance Fund. The bottom line is that the Social Insurance Fund maintains a register of stolen or lost sick leave certificates. If the certificate of incapacity being checked is included in this list, it is fake. For policyholders submitting reports via telecommunications channels, such authentication will take a couple of minutes.

Here's how to check sick leave by number online on the FSS website:

1. Follow the link to the official website of the FSS.
2. Log in to the personal account of the insured organization.
3. In your electronic account, enter the employee’s slip number and SNILS.
4. If the sick leave is genuine, it will be displayed after the search.
5. If the policyholder maintains electronic document flow with the Social Insurance Fund, then he fills out the certificate of incapacity for work in the “To be filled out by the employer” field. The specialist must keep all the information, sign the digital signature and send it to the Social Insurance Fund.

This check is always up to date and accurate. But there is another way to check the authenticity of a sick leave through online resources. On the same official website of the FSS there is a list of invalid and missing sick leave certificates.

The user enters this section and downloads a table with a register of lost data.

If after entering the first nine digits a match is found, the certificate of incapacity for work is fake.

For your convenience, we offer to download the current FSS table.

Disability benefits on a sick leave form

Accruals of sick leave benefits, in accordance with Article 7 of Federal Law No. 255-FZ, occur for insured persons in varying amounts (from the minimum wage established by law to 100% of the employee’s average earnings) depending on the cause of disability, length of service and the average amount itself. earnings. All this information is entered by the employer on the form of the certificate of incapacity for work.

In the column “Average earnings for calculating benefits,” the employer enters the amount of the employee’s average earnings calculated for the two previous years to date. The procedure for its calculation is reflected in Article 14 of Federal Law No. 255-FZ. Average daily earnings = total average earnings for two years / 730. It is also written down on the sick leave form in the appropriate column.

As stated in paragraph 2 of Article 3 of Federal Law No. 255-FZ, the first 3 days of sick leave are paid for at the expense of the employer, the subsequent days are paid for by the Social Insurance Fund. This is exactly what the employer needs to reflect on the sick leave - the amount of benefits from both sources is written down in separate columns. It is important to know that the total amount of benefits to be accrued is indicated minus personal income tax.

Some employers compensate employees for the difference between their actual average earnings or salary and disability benefits. Such an additional payment for sick leave can be indicated in the enterprise’s employment or collective agreement, in accordance with paragraph 25 of Article 255 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, and then it is legally included in labor costs for calculating the tax base for income tax. For an employee, additional payment to a certificate of incapacity for work is the same income, therefore it is also taxed at 13%.

Sick leave codes are different and contain information about the illness or disabled status of the employee. Using a fully completed form, the employer can determine what type of illness his employee has, whether his illness progressed with an extension of sick leave through a medical examination, whether there were any violations of the regime, whether he was receiving outpatient or inpatient treatment, whether he was sick himself or was caring for a sick child. All sick leave codes make it easier to fill out and understand the information on the form for both employees of the medical organization and the employer.

Source

What to do if the check on the FSS website does not produce results

If the electronic verification did not display data on the authenticity of the sick leave, but you still doubt that this is the original, contact the FSS. This method is the most correct. FSS experts will contact the medical institution themselves and check the authenticity of the certificate of incapacity for work. There is only one downside - data analysis will take a long time, and the accountant is obliged to pay the employee sick leave within 10 days.

The appeal is drawn up on company letterhead indicating the organizational details of the policyholder. The form is free. One of the mandatory conditions is to include in the content of the letter information about the employee, sick leave number and the medical organization that issued the form. The certificate of incapacity for work itself is attached to the letter, and not a copy, but the original.

How to fill out a personal income tax certificate, taking into account sick leave

When an accountant fills out a personal income tax certificate, the sick leave code must in any case be entered as 2300. This is the case because sick leave payments, although they are income, cannot be taxed.

An employee may need this certificate to receive a loan or present it at a new workplace. With its help, you can check all the amounts that were paid for sick leave, and if you know the sick leave code, you can calculate whether the benefit was paid correctly.

What to do if the sick leave is fake

If you submit a fake sick leave, there are two scenarios:

1. If the forgery is detected immediately and payment for such a certificate of incapacity does not go through. Everything is simple here. The organization loses nothing, declares the forgery at its own discretion, and punishes the culprit at its discretion.
2. If the accountant processed and paid for a fake sick leave. Usually such violations are detected by the FSS. If payment is made, the FSS will simply compensate the policyholder’s expenses. The employer recovers damages from the employee, but the amount of recovery cannot exceed 20% of his earnings. Anything more is collected through the court.

What to do with the violator depends on the decision of management. If the manager is loyal to the employee, he will limit himself to a warning. You cannot be fired for providing a fake sick leave certificate.

Calculation of sick leave with violation of the regime

In this case, the payment will be calculated based on the minimum wage.

The formula is as follows: the amount of the average salary for the year according to the minimum wage * 2 / number of calendar working days.

If the employee does not close his sick leave, no payment is made at all, and all the days that he was sick can be considered absenteeism. At the same time, if a person is on sick leave, he cannot be fired.

Payment for sick leave is carried out from the date of opening to the date of discharge of the patient.

Example. Citizen B. was given a date for an appointment with a doctor on March 13. He arrived only 14. The appointment showed that the patient was healthy. The sick leave certificate will reflect code 024. The discharge date will be March 13, and the start date of working capacity will be March 15. Result: March 14 is a day of absence and will not be paid for the day.

What is the penalty for falsifying sick leave and recording it?

The organization faces nothing but uncompensated losses from payments based on a fake certificate of incapacity for work. They are collected over a long period from the employee’s salary or in a lump sum through the court.

The employee committed fraudulent acts, so the employer has the right to write a statement about forgery of documents. Such offenses are subject to criminal liability (Article 159.2, 327 of the Criminal Code) in the form of a large fine or imprisonment for up to 2 years. But such punishment is initiated only by the leader. If a fake sick leave gets into the hands of FSS employees, they have the right to contact the police and demand the initiation of a criminal case.