The French social insurance system was enacted to mitigate financial risks inherent in the permanent or temporary inability to work following an illness, accident, pregnancy, disability, etc., by allowing individuals to receive revenue without being employed.
The basic scheme of the illness insurance branch of Social Security covers the following risks:

	sick leave and maternity: Beginning from the fourth day of sick leave, an allowance equal to 50% of the gross wage (calculated based on the last three months of pay and within limit of the Social Security ceiling) is paid by the illness insurance to the insured in the form of cash benefits. These daily allowances will increase to 51.49% of the gross wage beginning from the seventh month of sick leave, and the basic scheme's maximum duration of compensation is three years.
	disability : To be considered formally disabled by Social Security, the employee must either have been on sick leave more than three years, or must be in a state of health that is not likely to improve in the short term, if he or she is on a sick leave less than three years. Once this has been recognized, the employee will receive a pension paid by the basic scheme to compensate for his/her loss of salary and his/her rights to Social Security's illness insurance will be maintained.
	death : The social insurance system guarantees the payment of a death benefit.

An employer may subscribe to a complementary social insurance contract for employees in order to complement benefits paid for by the basic scheme.

In the event of disability or incapacity following a sick leave, the social protection contract may call for:
- in the event of temporary incapacity, the payment of daily allowances supplementing those paid by Social Security, over a period of contractually defined time
- in the event of permanent disability, the payment of an annuity supplementing the one provided by Social Security, calculated as a percentage of the annual remuneration (as defined at the time of the sick leave), and variable depending on the family's situation

In the event of death, this contract can include the payment in capital, pensions for the deceased's spouse, education allowances or even orphans' pensions.

The collective contract offers numerous advantages:
- a better compensation fee for protecting the employee's family in case of death or disability
- the deduction of contributions from taxable income, within the limits of fiscal regulation. This is automatically deducted from the payroll by the employer

NOVALIS information:
NOVALIS Group offers companies, through the intermediary social protection institutions of NOVALIS Prévoyance and La BOETIE Prévoyance, collective social protection contracts to help cover employee life risks. NOVALIS also supports companies through preventative measures and monitoring sick leaves.