Data about social security are taken from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

The social security scheme is the main instrument of the social policy and consists of the schemes of pension insurance, sickness insurance, state social support, assistance in material need, providing of social services (including care benefit), and other systems of benefits.

The pension insurance scheme provides security to citizens for old age, disability, or death of the breadwinner. The compulsory basic pension insurance scheme provides old-age pensions, disability pensions, and survivors’ pensions (widows’ and widowers’ pensions, and orphan pension). The scheme has continuous funding and the legal regulation is unified for all pension insured persons according to the Act No 155/1995 Sb, on Pension Insurance, as subsequently amended.

The sickness insurance scheme is intended for people in remunerative work, for whom it provides security through financial sickness insurance benefits in cases of the so-called short-term social events (temporary incapacity for work due to a disease, an injury, or quarantine, caring for a family member, pregnancy and maternity, or caring for a child). Sickness insurance is compulsory for employees (including members of the armed forces and security forces), whereas for the self-employed participation in the sickness insurance system remains voluntary. Since 2009, sickness insurance has been fully regulated by the Act No 187/2006 Sb, on Sickness Insurance, as subsequently amended. The sickness insurance scheme consists of six benefits as follows: sickness benefit, attendance allowance, maternity benefit, pregnancy and maternity compensation benefit, paternity benefit, and long-term attendance allowance.

The system of state social support is regulated by the Act No 117/1995 Sb, on the State Social Support, as subsequently amended. The system secures targeted assistance to families with dependent children in defined social situations solution of which is beyond own forces and resources of the family. State social support benefits include child allowance, parental allowance, housing allowance, birth grant, and funeral grant. Some of them (child allowance, housing allowance, and birth grant) are means-tested and are provided depending on the income of the applicant and persons assessed jointly with the applicant.

Foster care benefits, which were regulated by the Act on State Social Support until the end of 2012, has been forming a part of the Act No 359/1999 Sb, on Social and Legal Protection of Children, as subsequently amended. A child is provided with foster care by a registered person who performs foster care for a temporary period or by a caring person (a foster parent or a guardian in particular). There were the following types of foster care benefits in 2022: a foster child allowance, a foster parent allowance, a foster care allowance, a care leaver’s grant/allowance (a maintenance allowance for young adults leaving foster care), a fostering grant (a grant at the beginning of foster care), and a motor vehicle grant.

The system of assistance in material need is regulated by the Act No 111/2006 Sb, on Assistance in Material Need, as subsequently amended. It is a form of assistance to natural persons having insufficient income that shall motivate the persons to make active efforts to acquire resources to satisfy their basic needs of life and to prevent them from social exclusion. It is established that every person is entitled to get basic information, which not merely assist to solve his/her current conditions yet also prevent occurrence of material need conditions. The system of assistance in material need includes allowance for living, supplementary housing allowance (sometimes called “supplement for housing”), and extraordinary immediate assistance. A humanitarian benefit provided to citizens of Ukraine who were granted temporary protection was also included in this system of benefits in 2022.

Benefits for people with disabilities that means mobility allowance and grant for special aid were introduced in 2012 by the Act No 329/2011 Sb, on Providing Benefits for People with Disabilities and Amendments of Related Acts, as subsequently amended.

The Act No 108/2006 Sb, on Social Services (effective since 1 January 2007), introduced the care benefit. The entitled person for this benefit is a person who, due to long-term bad health, needs assistance of another natural person while taking care of themselves and providing for self-sufficiency within the extent as defined by law. The persons may, on the basis of their own free will, reimburse professional social services or use the benefit to cover essential expenses for providing care within their family.

Such a job seeking person (job applicant) is entitled to get an unemployment benefit who complied with prerequisites as defined by the Act No 435/2004 Sb, on Employment, as subsequently amended.

An advance of maintenance payment is a benefit that is to financially support for a temporary period of time a dependent child in a situation when its parent shall pay maintenance as decided by court, yet he/she does not fulfil his/her maintenance obligation. For more information, see the Act No 588/2020 Sb. The benefit was introduced on 1 July 2021.

The European System of integrated Social PROtection Statistics (ESSPROS) was developed by Eurostat in accordance with the Regulation (EC) No 458/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 April 2007 on the European system of integrated social protection statistics (ESSPROS). The ESSPROS is a common framework enabling comprehensive international comparison of administrative data on social benefits to households and their financing in the EU Member States. In the ESSPROS core system the concept of social protection is defined as all interventions from public or private bodies intended to relieve financial burden of households following from numerous risks or needs. Groups of risks and/or needs relate to respective functions of social protection of the ESSSPROS system, which are established as follows:

– sickness/health care – income maintenance and support in cash in connection with physical or mental illness, excluding disability. Health care intended to maintain, restore or improve the health of the people protected irrespective of the origin of the disorder;

– disability – income maintenance and support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with the inability of physically or mentally disabled people to engage in economic and social activities;

– old age – income maintenance and support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with old age;

– survivors – income maintenance and support in cash or kind in connection with the death of a family member;

– family/children – support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with the costs of pregnancy, childbirth and adoption, bringing up children, and caring for other family members;

– unemployment – income maintenance and support in cash or kind in connection with unemployment;

– housing – help towards the cost of housing;

– social exclusion not elsewhere classified – benefits in cash or kind (except health care) specifically intended to combat social exclusion where they are not covered by one of the other functions.

The core system deals only with social protection provided in the form of cash payments, reimbursements, and directly delivered goods and services to households and individuals.

Methodology of the calculation of expenditure on social protection according to the ESSPROS system differs from that applied for expenditure on social security benefits used in other (national) tables in this chapter.

Further information can be found on the website of the Czech Statistical Office at:

– www.czso.cz/csu/czso/social-security

or on the websites of other institutions at:

– www.mpsv.cz/web/en – Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs

– www.cssz.cz/web/lang – Czech Social Security Administration