The disability pension is a pension benefit used to provide financial support to people whose illness or infirmity prevents them from fully engaging in work in the long term.
For persons who are not/have not been members of the armed forces, the Czech Social Security Administration is responsible for processing the application for a disability pension.
You are an insured person who is not/has not been a member of the armed forces, has not reached the age of 65 and has become:
You will not be entitled to an disability pension if you were eligible for an ordinary old-age pension on the date you became disabled, or if you have been granted an early old-age pension and have reached retirement age.
Disability
The fact of whether and to what degree you are disabled is assessed by the district social security administration's medical assessor. Disability is a long-term illness or infirmity that reduces your ability to work by at least 35%, i.e. your ability to engage in gainful activity has decreased by at least 35% compared to before the long-term illness or infirmity arose, due to limitations in your physical, sensory and mental abilities.
There are three degrees of disability:
Required period of insurance
The required period of insurance is determined from the period before the disability occurred, and its length depends on the age of the insurance policyholder:
| Age | Required period of insurance including substitute periods |
| up to 20 years of age | less than 1 year of insurance (i.e. one day is enough) |
| 20-22 years of age | 1 year |
| 22-24 years of age | 2 years |
| 24-26 years of age | 3 years |
| 26-28 years of age | 4 years |
| 28 years of age or more | 5 years |
The necessary period of insurance is not required in the case of disability resulting from an accident at work or occupational disease.
In addition to the disability pension for first-, second- or third-degree disability, there is also a ‘youth disabilitypension’, which is available to a person who:
You can apply for a disability pension at any time (preferably after consulting your doctor) if your state of health prevents you from fully engaging in work for a long period time. A disability pension can be granted no earlier than from the date the disability began as determined by the medical assessor.
You may also apply for a pension retrospectively, but it will be paid no more than 5 years retrospectively from the date you applied for the pension.
The individual applied for a disability pension on 2 May 2020. The date of the disability began was determined by the medical assessor retrospectively as 13 February 2014. The Czech Social Security Administration will grant the pension from 13 February 2014, but will only pay it 5 years retrospectively from the date the pension application was filed, i.e. from 2 May 2015.
When you apply for a disability pension, you must submit the originals or certified copies of the following documents:
If you are applying for a pension not only from the Czech Republic, but also from another EU Member State or from a state with which the Czech Republic has concluded a bilateral social security agreement, we recommend that you also attach documents proving the period for which you were employed/insured abroad, if available. However, it is not necessary to provide a certificate from the competent pension institution abroad stating the period of insurance in that country. The Czech Social Security Administration will request this confirmation from the institution itself.
An overview of the countries with which the Czech Republic has concluded a bilateral social security treaty can be found on the website of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
As a person who is not/has not been a member of the armed forces, you must apply for a pension in person, or by proxy through your representative, at the district social security administration competent for your place of residence, in Prague at the Prague Social Security Administration and in Brno at the Municipal Social Security Administration. A member of the Social Security Administration will draw up the application with you on the prescribed form. If a person is unable to file an application alone for health reasons, their family members may file an application on their behalf, provided that they agree to it, on the basis of a doctor's certificate confirming that person’s state of health. The process of assessing your disability when your application is received. The assessment is carried out on behalf of the competent district social security administration by a medical assessor. The bases on which the doctor assesses disability include: The actual disability assessment carried out by the medical assessor usually takes place in your absence, based on all the medical reports and documents mentioned above. However, if the supporting documents are insufficient for the assessment, you will be asked to see a medical assessor who will then assess your condition in your presence. The result of the disability assessment process is a disability report from the medical assessor, which will be sent to you within 7 days of the report being made. The competent social security administration shall forward the disability assessment together with the pension application to the Czech Social Security Administration, which is competent to decide on the entitlement to and amount of pensions for persons who are not/have not been members of the armed forces. The deadline for processing the application is 90 days. However, this deadline may be extended by the period during which facts that are decisive for the entitlement to pension, its amount or payment are investigated and the Czech Social Security Administration does not have them in its records (e.g. undocumented missing insurance period in the Czech Republic, time spent employed/insured abroad). If the Czech Social Security Administration does not have the facts decisive for your entitlement to the pension or the amount or payment of the pension, you (as well as your employer or insurance provider abroad) may be asked to provide them. It is obligatory to comply with this request within 8 days of its receipt. You can provide proof or certification of these facts either in person at the District Social Security Administration/Prague Social Security Administration/Municipal Social Security Administration in Brno according to your place of residence, or by sending it by post directly to the address of the Czech Social Security Administration, or by sending a data message to the data box of the Czech Social Security Administration or by sending a data message with a recognised electronic signature to its electronic filing address. Contact details can be found on the Czech Social Security Administration website. Once the Czech Social Security Administration has all the necessary documents, it will decide on your application for a disability pension. If you meet the eligibility conditions, the Czech Social Security Administration will send you a written decision on the granting of the pension, stating the date from which the pension will be paid and in what amount. This is accompanied by a personal pension certificate, which contains a summary of the accountable insurance periods, including substitute insurance periods and assessment bases. If you do not meet the eligibility conditions, the Czech Social Security Administration will send you a written decision rejecting your application for a disability pension, stating the reasons for the rejection. If you have been awarded an disability pension, the Czech Social Security Administration will pay it out on the payment date you chose when you applied for the pension.
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An insurance policyholder whose ability to engage in gainful activity has decreased by at least 35% as a result of a long-term illness or infirmity will start receiving financial support in the form of an disability pension, as follows:
Beneficiaries of disability pensions (all three degrees of disability) may continue to work as much as they are able. Gainful activity therefore does not render you ineligible to a disability pension or the payment of a disability pension.
Objections may be filed as a legal remedy against a decision passed by the Czech Social Security Administration in pension insurance matters in writing within 30 days of the date the party to the proceedings was notified of the decision.
Objections must contain the same formalities as an appeal filed pursuant to § 82 of the Administrative Procedure Code, i.e. they must first of all show by whom they are made, what they concern and what is proposed; they must therefore contain the name of the party and the administrative authority to which they are addressed and the signature of the person making them.
They must also state which decision they are challenging, the extent to which it is challenged and the grounds on which they allege that the decision or the proceedings preceding the objection are unlawful or incorrect.
If the objections do not specify the extent to which the party is challenging the decision, it is deemed to be seeking the annulment of the entire decision.
The filing of objections shall not have suspensive effect unless the decision concerns the fulfilment of a sanctioning obligation of the beneficiaries or employers. Objections must filed with the Czech Social Security Administration, which issued the decision and also decides on such objections.
Objections may be filed directly with the Czech Social Security Administration or with any district social security administration by the aforementioned deadline. First-instance decisions of the Czech Social Security Administration therefore do not become legally effective upon delivery, but only upon the expiry of the 30‑day deadline for filing objections, or upon delivery (notification) of the Czech Social Security Administration's decision on the objections.
The Czech Social Security Administration shall review the decision against which objections have been filed in its entirety; it shall not be bound by the objections filed and may decide against the party to the proceedings. Objection proceedings must be conducted separately from the first-instance decision-making of the Czech Social Security Administration – persons who participated in the proceedings for the contested decision cannot participate in or make decisions in objection proceedings.
The filing of an objection is a legal remedy in administrative proceedings and the completion of the objection proceedings, whether successful or unsuccessful, is therefore a prerequisite for the court to be able to deal with the matter in the context of any later administrative lawsuit.
However, a beneficiary who believes that their rights have been violated may file a lawsuit against the final decision of the Czech Social Security Administration within 2 months of receipt of the decision on the objections. The elements of a lawsuit are regulated by the Administrative Procedure Code (Act No 150/2002 Coll.).
The regional (or, in Prague, Municipal) court in whose district the plaintiff resides or in whose district the plaintiff is staying has jurisdiction over the action.
If the person is neither domiciled in the territory of the Czech Republic nor staying in the territory of the Czech Republic, the Regional Court in Brno shall have jurisdiction over the lawsuit proceedings if the person is domiciled in the territory of the Slovak Republic; the Regional Court in Ostrava if the person is domiciled in the territory of the Republic of Poland; the Regional Court in Pilzeň if the person is domiciled in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany; the Regional Court in České Budějovice if the person is domiciled in the territory of the Republic of Austria.
If the jurisdiction of the regional court cannot be determined in this way, the regional court designated according to the place of the person's last residence in the Czech Republic shall have jurisdiction, and if jurisdiction cannot be determined in this way either, the Regional Court in Prague shall have jurisdiction.
If you do not undergo a medical check-up or other professional examination, even though you have been requested to do so by the Czech Social Security Administration, your pension benefit may be stopped if you have been warned of the consequence of this in the request.
At the request of the Czech Social Security Administration, you are also obliged to submit any medical findings by your attending doctors you might have for the purpose of assessing the impact on your capacity to work and to provide information on your education, experience and expertise, previous gainful activities and changes in the reported facts that have occurred since the previous assessment of the impact on your capacity to work within 8 days of receiving the request, unless the Czech Social Security Administration has set a longer deadline. If you fail to comply with this obligation, your pension may also be stopped if you have been warned of the consequence of this in the request.
If there is a change in the facts relevant to your entitlement to a disability pension, you must report it to the Czech Social Security Administration within 8 days.
If you receive a disability pension or part thereof, even though the circumstances may suggest that it was paid wrongly or at an amount higher than due, you are obliged to refund the amounts wrongly paid.
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