Sick leave in Bulgaria: who pays and how much

Working life · Last reviewed: 2026-08-24

Terms first: three different things get confused

Three neighbouring concepts circle the word „illness“ in Bulgaria, and mixing them sends people to the wrong counter. The first is HEALTH INSURANCE (здравно осигуряване): it gives access to treatment — seeing a doctor, having medicine covered. The second is the TEMPORARY INCAPACITY BENEFIT (парично обезщетение при временна неработоспособност): it replaces the INCOME for days you cannot work while being treated. The third is the RIGHT TO BE ABSENT under the employment relationship: the legal basis for not turning up to work on the days covered by the sick note.

This article covers the second — the money. How health insurance works, what it covers and how rights lapse when contributions go unpaid is the subject of a separate article on this site, and the two do not substitute for each other: your health insurance may be active while you have no entitlement to the benefit, or the other way round. Which counter you approach depends on whether the problem is money or treatment.

The scheme: two payers, two rates, one sick note

Temporary incapacity in Bulgaria begins with a single document: the болничен лист, the sick note issued by a doctor. Once it is issued, two separate payment mechanisms engage. The first comes out of the employer's pocket and covers only the first two working days. The second comes from state social insurance, runs from the third day, and is transferred by the НОИ directly to the insured person's bank account.

The practical consequence: in a month with sick leave your pay splits in two and the total comes out lower than an ordinary month. The payslip shows only the value of the first two days; the money for the remaining days arrives as a separate payment from the НОИ and never appears on the payslip. Most people who conclude „my salary was cut“ have simply not yet received the second payment.

The first condition: six months of insurance record

The temporary incapacity benefit is a right, but a conditional one. In the НОИ's own formulation, it arises where the person is insured for general illness and maternity and has at least six months of insurance record as insured for that risk. The basis is Article 40 of the Social Insurance Code. The six months need not be continuous with one employer; periods insured for that risk are added together.

The harshest detail is this: without those six months, not only the НОИ payment fails to arise but so does the employer's payment for the first two working days (as of 1 January 2024). Someone who has just started work and was never insured in Bulgaria before can therefore spend a sick note with no payment at all. For newcomers this is a genuine income risk in the first months and belongs in the relocation budget.

For people arriving from another EU state the six months usually already exist, but they must be documented to be recognised. EU coordination rules allow the aggregation; in practice you should present your previous insurance history when you start work, so that it enters your file. Without documents the system sees „no record“, and the gap closes only once you raise it.

The rates: 70% and 80%

For the first two days the НОИ also sets a floor: the amount paid may not be less than 70% of the average daily AGREED wage. That rule protects workers in months with few days actually worked. The base for the НОИ payment, meanwhile, is income on which contributions have been paid or are due — so no benefit can be calculated on undeclared earnings.

That is why the practice of paying „part of the salary in cash“ hits hardest precisely at sick leave: what is absent from the payslip is absent from the benefit calculation. The same logic applies to maternity, unemployment benefit and pensions — but it is felt fastest on sick leave, because the first long sick note usually arrives at an unexpected moment.

How the sick note comes into being: the electronic record

In Bulgaria the sick note stopped being a sheet of paper long ago. The doctor issues it electronically and the record enters the НОИ's system; the institute maintains a dedicated „еБолнични листове“ electronic service and enquiry screen. The sick note is therefore not „paper handed over by hand“ but a record in a system — and you can check your own record from that screen.

1. 1

   Go to your GP (личен лекар) or the treating doctor

   The power to issue a sick note lies with the doctor. In an emergency treatment may begin in hospital; align the record with your GP afterwards.
2. 2

   Note the number and the period of the sick note

   In the electronic record these are your tracking keys. With them you find your own note in the НОИ enquiries.
3. 3

   Inform your employer THE SAME DAY

   To submit data to the НОИ, the employer must have the sick note presented to them. Delay here means delay in payment.
4. 4

   Make sure the НОИ has your bank details

   Payment goes directly to you; a missing account leaves it in limbo. Close this step before your first sick note.
5. 5

   Track your own record through the electronic services

   You can see whether the note has entered the system and whether the employer has filed. If something is missing, asking beats waiting.

The employer's filing: приложение № 9

For every sick note the insurer must complete and submit a certificate to the НОИ: приложение № 9 to the benefits ordinance. The deadline is clear: these certificates are submitted to the НОИ by the 10th day of the month following the month in which the insured person presented the sick note to the insurer. So for a note presented in October, filing must have happened by 10 November at the latest.

Why that date concerns you: the НОИ's payment clock starts when this certificate arrives. If filing is late, payment is late, and the cause is usually not you but the accounting calendar. The first question of a worker with no money in the account should not be „why has the НОИ not paid“ but „has приложение № 9 been filed“ — that is where the chain usually breaks.

When the money arrives

The НОИ's own rules set the payment deadline, and it depends on the arrival of the data. Temporary incapacity benefits are paid to entitled persons within 10 working days of the submission to the НОИ of the приложение № 9 certificates and of the arrival at the НОИ of the data from the issued sick notes.

• •A sick note within one month — payment within 10 working days after the certificate and the data arrive.
• •A sick note spanning more than one calendar month — the same 10-working-day period applies for the first month; for each following calendar month payment is made within 5 working days after that month ends.
• •The final month — payment is made within 5 working days after the benefit period ends.
• •The clock starts at filing — it does not run from the day the note was issued but from the day the institute receives the data.

Why the benefit comes out lower than your salary

Anyone comparing a sick-leave month with an ordinary one meets a gap arising from three different sources and usually blames it on one. The first is the rate itself: 70% for the first two days, 80% thereafter — no day is paid in full. The second is the base: the benefit is calculated not on the whole gross but on income for which contributions have been paid or are due. The third is timing: the НОИ payment does not land on the same day as the salary, so at month end part of the money simply has not arrived yet.

This trio is more visible for people with regular overtime or a bonus component. Bonuses and allowances change every month, so the base changes with them, and that produces the feeling that „last time it was more“. The correct comparison is to add the payslip and the НОИ transfer together and set them against the insurable income for the same period; a bank statement alone does not show that calculation.

The budgeting conclusion is simple: in Bulgaria a long sick note is not a light event for household income, and even two or three weeks change the shape of the month. A cushion of one month's expenses is not a luxury here but a natural consequence of how the system is built.

Work accidents and occupational disease are a separate track

General illness and a work accident or occupational disease do not come through the same door. In the latter, the event itself is declared, investigated and recorded, and the benefit regime differs from general illness. So after an incident at the workplace or on the journey to and from work, the first thing to do is ensure it is RECORDED as a work accident — telling the doctor „I fell at home“ quietly closes a right.

Declaring a work accident is the employer's obligation, but in practice the worker should verify it was done. If there was a witness, note their name; record the time and place; describe events to the doctor exactly as they happened. Check the rate and duration on that track on the relevant НОИ page; this article develops only the general-illness regime and deliberately writes no rate for the other track, so the two are not conflated.

Caring for a sick relative, and quarantine

Temporary incapacity is not limited to your own illness. Bulgarian social insurance law also provides benefit for caring for a sick family member — a young child in particular — and for certain quarantine situations. Each of these has its own duration limit and its own paperwork, and the limits vary by the type of situation rather than by the person.

The figures for those durations are DELIBERATELY not written here: each situation has its own ceiling, and a day count written without verification causes bad planning at exactly the moment of need. When your child falls ill, the right move is to ask your GP which type of note you qualify for and to confirm the current duration on the НОИ's temporary incapacity page.

What happens to your employment during sick leave

A sick note does not end the employment contract, and the relationship continues throughout. Annual leave keeps accruing, your insurance declaration continues and the period counts towards length of service. Two special effects do apply, though: a probation period does NOT advance on sick days (only time actually worked counts), and sick days falling inside paid annual leave are not treated as leave consumed.

Long-term incapacity brings in the medical expertise procedure: beyond a certain duration the decision no longer comes from one doctor but from a panel. That step is necessary both for continuity of treatment and for continuation of the benefit; missing the date interrupts payment. On long sick notes the safest approach is to set the calendar together with the treating doctor.

The five commonest mistakes

• •Assuming you have the six months — a newcomer insured in Bulgaria for the first time can be left without benefit in the early months. Document your previous EU periods.
• •Budgeting on the old three-day rule — for incapacity starting after 1 January 2024 the employer-paid days number two.
• •Telling the employer late — the приложение № 9 deadline depends on the month in which the note was presented to the insurer; delay delays payment.
• •Not updating your bank details with the НОИ — payment goes to the account given to the institute; a closed account leaves it in limbo.
• •Working on undeclared pay — the benefit is calculated on income with contributions paid; invisible pay is invisible in the benefit too.

Foreign workers and cross-border situations

For those insured in Bulgaria but receiving treatment in another EU state, and conversely for those insured elsewhere who fall ill in Bulgaria, the EU social security coordination rules apply. Their central idea is simple: the state where you are insured owes the payment, while the state where you are present gives you access to treatment. What actually works in practice is documentation — learning in advance which institution wants which form saves months of correspondence later.

Social security relations between Türkiye and Bulgaria rest on a different legal footing from EU coordination and are the subject of a separate article on this site. The only warning here is this: for someone moving between the two countries, the answer to „which country am I insured in“ also determines from whom the benefit is claimed. Do not look for the answer on the day you fall ill; establish it in writing when you start the job.

Can a sick note be checked?

Yes, and that has two sides, both of which concern the worker. The electronic sick-note system lets the institution see notes in aggregate and check them where needed; the НОИ also devotes a page to frequently asked questions about their issue. The existence of oversight is not bad news for workers: in a recorded system a note cannot „disappear“, nor can an employer claim never to have seen it.

On the other hand, the medical basis may be reviewed by a panel and that review can affect the benefit. Observing the prescribed regime during the sick note is therefore not only a health matter but a legal one: behaviour found to contradict the prescribed regime makes the benefit contestable.

When payment does not arrive: a five-step diagnosis

When the НОИ payment does not land within the expected period, do not guess — eliminate in order. The chain has several links, and finding the broken one means asking the right question of the right person.

1. 1

   Has the note entered the system?

   Check your own record through the НОИ's electronic enquiry. If there is no record, the problem is at the doctor's end and so is the fix.
2. 2

   Has the employer filed приложение № 9?

   The deadline is the 10th of the month following the month you presented the note. Ask payroll for the filing date.
3. 3

   Do you have six months of insurance record?

   If not, no payment arises. Where you have earlier EU periods, take the documents to the НОИ; once aggregated, the right arises.
4. 4

   Are your bank details current with the institute?

   Payment comes straight to you. A closed or never-declared account leaves it in limbo, and nobody will call to tell you.
5. 5

   Are you counting the deadline correctly?

   The ten working days run not from the issue of the note but from the day the certificate and data reach the institute. The difference is often a week.

How to verify this page today

The rates and deadlines for sickness benefit rest on the Social Insurance Code and the benefits ordinance; both can change within the year, and the 2024 change is a fresh example. The information here is tied to official sources as at 24 August 2026; before expecting a payment or contesting one, confirm the current value on the official page: the НОИ page „Парично обезщетение при временна неработоспособност“ for rates and conditions, the page on certificates № 9, № 10 and № 11 for filing deadlines, and the „еБолнични листове“ screen for the record itself.

Frequently asked questions

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