A person who exercises a paid professional activity in Luxembourg, for their own account or for the account of a third party, must be affiliated to the social security scheme in Luxembourg through the Common Centre of Social Security (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale CCSS). This affiliation covers all risks in terms of social security (sickness and maternity, accidents at work and occupational diseases, old age and disability as well as long-term care).
This membership allows the insured person and their family members to benefit from the services offered by the sickness and maternity insurance via their competent health fund.
On the declaration of entry (déclaration d’entrée) the insured person receives, their competent health fund is specified: this is either the Caisse nationale de santé (CNS), the Caisse de maladie des fonctionnaires et employés publics (CMFEP), the Caisse de maladie des fonctionnaires et employés communaux (CMFEC) or the Entraide médicale de la CFL (EMCFL).
The CNS is the point of contact for all insured persons working in the private sector (salaried and non-salaried workers such as self-employed workers) as well as for manual workers working for the government.
The employer and the Common Centre of Social Security (CCSS)
Membership
For each remunerated employee, the employer must send a declaration of entry (déclaration d’entrée) to the Common Centre of Social Security.
When a non-salaried worker starts their professional activity in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, they must immediately contact the CCSS, which is the competent institution for the registration process to the social security scheme.
Detachment
Any employer who intends to send one of their employees abroad for professional reasons must inform the CCSS beforehand.
Contributions
In order to finance social security benefits, the CCSS collects social security contributions based on the employee’s remuneration.
For this purpose, the employers are required to declare the actual gross earnings on a monthly basis.
Monthly report of the incapacities for work
In addition to the periods of incapacity for work from the previous month, the employer is required to provide on the monthly report of the incapacities for work the exact number of hours the employee was unable to work. These reports should be done during the entire affiliation of the employee; not only during the period where the employer is required to pay the salary, but also when the CNS is in charge of paying cash benefits.
These reports of incapacities for work allow the CCSS to calculate automatically the reimbursement of wages, which will be undertaken by the Employers' Mutual Insurance Fund (Mutualité des Employeurs).
Employers are required to continue to remunerate their employees until the end of the calendar month in which lies the 77th day of incapacity for work during a reference period of 18 successive calendar months, which would be equivalent, on average, to a 13-week period.
During the period of the continued payment of wages, the Mutual Insurance Fund - through the CCSS - reimburses 80% of these wages to the employer. After this period, the CNS covers the payment of the cash benefits (after informing the employer that their responsibilities in this area have reached their end).
These declarations are also important for the CNS in order to be able to proceed to the payment of the subsequent cash benefits to the insured person.
For further information regarding the Employers’ Mutual Insurance Fund, please visit their website.