Sick Pay, CSED, GYED, and GYES for Sole Proprietors

What the benefits are based on: your contribution base, not your revenue

Sick pay, CSED, and GYED are all calculated from a daily average income derived from the social security contribution base you actually paid in on your insured relationship. If you're a main-occupation proprietor paying only the minimum contribution (on the minimum wage or guaranteed wage minimum), the benefit's base is that same, much lower amount, not your actual revenue. For a secondary-occupation proprietor, with no minimum contribution base, this figure can swing even more, since the contribution paid on the business activity depends month to month on what you actually withdrew as income.

Sick pay (táppénz)

An insured sole proprietor who becomes unable to work qualifies for sick pay if they have at least 365 days of continuous prior insured coverage. Sick pay is 50% of the daily average income, or 60% if you were continuously insured for at least 2 years (730 days) before becoming unable to work. There's also a daily cap: it can't exceed one-thirtieth of twice the minimum wage in effect on the first day of eligibility: in 2026, that's 21,520 HUF a day. Importantly, sick pay is based on being medically unable to work: if you keep actually working and earning from the business at the same time, that can be incompatible with lawfully claiming it.

Infant-care benefit (CSED)

CSED is the equivalent of maternity leave pay, covering 168 days (24 weeks), under the same prior-insurance requirement as sick pay. It's 100% of the daily average income, with the same daily cap as sick pay (in 2026, 21,520 HUF a day, roughly 645,600 HUF for a 30-day month). Claiming CSED doesn't restrict continuing the business activity as strictly as sick pay does. Check NEAK's current guidance at the time you apply for the specifics.

Child-care fee (GYED)

GYED is available to a parent until the child turns 2, again under the prior-insurance requirement. It's 70% of the daily average income, with a monthly cap: in 2026, GYED can't exceed 451,920 HUF a month (70% of twice the minimum wage). GYED is SZJA-exempt, subject only to a 10% pension contribution. An important practical rule: there's no restriction on earning income while receiving GYED; you can continue the business activity and earn without limit, and it doesn't affect eligibility. GYED can be claimed retroactively for up to 6 months.

Child-raising support (GYES)

Unlike the above, GYES is not contribution-based: it's a flat entitlement, regardless of whether you paid contributions before or how much you earned. Its fixed monthly amount is pegged by law to the szociális vetítési alap (social reference base), which in 2026 is still 28,500 HUF, frozen at this level since 2008 (this used to equal the statutory minimum old-age pension too, but the law now pegs GYES to the social reference base instead). GYES runs until the child turns 3 (longer for twins or a permanently ill/severely disabled child). Income-earning activity is also unrestricted while on GYES, once the child is past six months old.

How do you claim it?

Since there's no employer to file on your behalf, you claim these benefits yourself, typically electronically (via e-Papír or NEAK's/the government office's client portal), together with the medical documentation for the inability to work or the birth. CSED and GYED are claimed at the health insurance fund (government office) covering the location of your business.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute tax advice. Source: the Mandatory Health Insurance Benefits Act, 1997. évi LXXXIII. törvény, the Family Support Act, 1998. évi LXXXIV. törvény, and the Social Security Benefits Act, 2019. évi CXXII. törvény (net.jogtar.hu).

Last updated: July 31, 2026.