During the working process, many workers have to take long-term unpaid leave for personal reasons. However, few people know that if they take unpaid leave for 14 working days or more in a month, social insurance participation and health insurance benefits may be significantly affected.
According to Clause 5, Article 33 of the 2024 Social Insurance Law, employees who are subject to compulsory social insurance but do not receive salary for 14 working days or more in the month will not have to pay social insurance in that month. Businesses are also not required to pay social insurance for employees during this leave period.
However, the above regulations do not apply to some special cases. Specifically, employees taking sick leave for 14 working days or more in the first month of working or the first month returning to work still have to pay social insurance according to regulations. For employees taking maternity leave for 14 working days or more in the month, this time is still counted as social insurance participation time even if both employees and businesses do not have to pay money.
Not only social insurance, health insurance benefits are also affected when employees take long-term unpaid leave. When businesses report labor reduction and do not continue to pay social insurance, employees' health insurance cards will also temporarily suspend their validity during that time. This means that employees may not be entitled to medical examination and treatment benefits with health insurance if a need arises.
To avoid interrupting the insurance participation process, the 2024 Social Insurance Law has added a more flexible mechanism for employees. Accordingly, from July 1, 2025, employees and businesses can agree to continue paying social insurance during unpaid leave of 14 working days or more.
If the two parties agree to continue participating in social insurance, the contribution level will be calculated based on the contribution level of the most recent month before the employee quit their job without pay. At that time, health insurance participation is also maintained accordingly, helping the health insurance card continue to be valid.
In case the enterprise does not agree to continue paying social insurance in the form of an agreement, employees can still choose to participate in voluntary social insurance. According to the 2024 Social Insurance Law, people who are temporarily suspending the performance of labor contracts or working contracts belong to groups eligible to participate in voluntary social insurance, unless there is an agreement to continue paying compulsory social insurance.
For health insurance, employees taking unpaid leave can participate in groups to self-pay health insurance. This is a solution to help maintain health insurance cards and ensure the right to medical examination and treatment during the time they are not working.
