A disability document is issued by a medical institution and serves as the basis for payroll during a period of illness. Based on this document, the employer has the right to compensate for the money paid at the expense of the Social Insurance Fund. That is why officials are required to know how to check the sick leave certificate to verify its authenticity.
general information
The disability certificate confirms that there are good reasons for the employee to miss work. Based on this document, a manual is drawn up. In recent years, cases of fraud have become more frequent. If the disability certificate turned out to be fake, then the employee must reimburse all expenses. Today, there are many services that offer fake documents.
Therefore, the authenticity of all papers must be checked in a timely manner to protect your company. It will also help to avoid various fines, additional fees, legal costs and maintain the status of the organization. Anticipating questions about how to verify a sick leave certificate for authenticity, the FSS has developed a convenient search form for such documents. In this article, we will consider the main criteria by which it is possible to determine this document from a fake without any problems, as well as the features of searching by number on the official Internet resource.
What it is?
The sick-list is a document of strict reporting, and all its information is entered in the register. The document has a unified form, watermarks and a non-repeating barcode. Fake sick leave is punishable by law. Therefore, if there is any doubt about the authenticity of the document, it is necessary to check the information in the clinic at the place of issue.
The sick leave is issued by a specialized medical document, which has an appropriate license. Such a form is not issued to employees who work in ambulance, forensic experts, medical prophylaxis, people working in reception departments of medical institutions and some other categories of citizens. The attending physician writes out a sick leave for up to 15 days. If necessary, it can be extended.
Major changes
Since 2017, a phased transition to electronic document management in this area has been carried out. A digital document is an analogue of a paper sick leave. Therefore, information is entered into the virtual database as soon as the patient has turned to a specialist for help. The document is signed by the attending physician using a qualified electronic signature. Regardless of the form of the document, the employer needs to make sure that the insured event has occurred and the employee received an official document at the medical institution. The electronic document management capabilities allow the employer to check the sick leave number on the FSS website. If the sheet is decorated on paper, you can conduct a visual inspection and identify a fake by characteristic signs.
Who can count on a refund?
A sick leave certificate can be obtained by any person caring for a child or other relative, as well as certain categories of employees. This sheet is one of the most forged documents to date. That is why it is important to understand how to check the certificate of incapacity for work for authenticity. This document is drawn up in the prescribed form and issued in an approved manner.Every manager or accountant needs to know how to verify the authenticity of a temporary disability sheet. This will protect the organization from paying benefits for a false document, which subsequently will not be reimbursed by the Social Insurance Fund.
Basic Verification Methods
Employers can verify the authenticity of a temporary disability document using various methods. How to check sick leave and verify the authenticity of the document? The following main methods can be distinguished:
- visual way;
- request to a medical facility;
- electronic appeal to the FSS;
Inspection based on visual signs requires certain knowledge and skills. A request to a medical institution is a fairly popular way that many employers use. The text indicates the number of the checked document. An electronic appeal to the Fund can be made using two methods: by contacting the database of invalid documents and by sending a request about the need to check the sick leave. The employer must indicate the number of the disability document and attach to the letter the original document, which will be returned after the audit.
Signs of fraud
The FSS has developed a special service that allows you to answer the question of how to verify the authenticity of the sick leave. Despite the introduction of technology in all areas, the paper form is still used in the design of temporary disability sheets. There are the following signs that distinguish a fake from the original sick leave. To do this, check:
- The absence of a three-color protective pattern is a clear sign of a fake.
- Watermarks are missing or different from the original form.
- Only fakes have poor paper quality.
- The background of the original and the colors of the cells differ significantly from the fake.
- Through a magnifying glass on this form, you can see subscripts under the graphs of signatures.
- There is no license number and organization name on the fakes.
- Incorrect address of the medical institution.
- Using fictitious surnames of doctors.
The original form is made in blue, which acquires a rich blue color at the edges of the document. Fake documents look too bright or very pale.
The original sheet feels like a banknote to the touch, while the fake form is made on thin paper. The fake is executed on a regular sheet, which does not create a special rustle, characteristic of the original. The background document is visible on the original document, and the paper contains protective fibers in green, pink, and blue. Fake forms do not contain the items listed. On the original form, the field “Signature of the doctor” is underlined by the microtext “Leaf of disability”. Also on the document, the number of the form is stamped by the printing method, therefore it is felt with fingers.
Validation of sick leave
If it is suspected that the employee was in bad faith skipping work, the employer involuntarily asks how to verify the authenticity of the sick leave. Such verification is quite simple to carry out, having the necessary knowledge. First of all, the above symptoms should be taken into account. It is necessary to act promptly, since sick leave payment is made within 10 days from the day it is received. For verification, you need ultraviolet light, with which you can determine the quality of the paper.
The official form does not glow white, and the typographic text becomes invisible. It is worth paying attention to spelling errors, as they are excluded in the original. In addition, you can send a request to the medical institution that provided the sick leave.
The employer can significantly reduce the time it takes to find false documents, since it is enough to check the authenticity of the sick leave by the FSS number. The Fund regularly posts updated lists of stationery numbers that are considered stolen or lost. When answering the question of how to verify the authenticity of sick leave by number, it is necessary to use the exclusion method. In other words, it is enough to verify the number of the dubious document with the nonexistent sheets in the database.
Disability Check with FSS
Very often, after conducting a visual inspection, officials have doubts about the authenticity of the document. In this case, you can go to the FSS website and verify the authenticity of the sick leave. Forms of documents that are declared invalid are located in a special section.
An official may personally appear in the federal service with the original document. Specialists will help establish the fact of issuing the document by the organization that is indicated in the leaflet. In the event that the answer confirms the invalidity of the form, it does not need to be paid and accepted for offset. There is a regulation which states that the issuance of sick leave by an organization without a license entails the provision of disability benefits by the employer.
Check on the FSS website
The official can independently verify the document on temporary disability, as well as enter the necessary information for sending to the department. For this, it is necessary to have an electronic digital signature for document management with the FSS and a valid company account on the State Services website. Then, you will need to get a unique electronic sick leave number from the employee and go to the "Policyholder's Office" on the official website of the Fund. For convenient search for the necessary document, you can use a special filter. You can check the sick leave number on the FSS website in the special section "Information for employers".
The effects of fake detection
Detection of fraud exempts the employer from paying sick leave. If the payment was made, then the employer may not expect to receive compensation from the FSS. The funds will have to be claimed from the employee in court. Presentation of a false document by an employee may result in liability:
- material;
- disciplinary;
- criminal;
Liability consists in compensation of damage to the employer by the employee. The law allows monthly deduction of 20% of the employee's salary. Also, the employer has the right to recover damages in court.
If the employee has provided a forged document, you can bring him to disciplinary action. The Labor Code provides for various penalties: deprivation of bonuses, reprimand. Receiving cash payments on the basis of a false document is a criminal act, according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Therefore, the employee can be prosecuted, and the punishment will depend on the decision of the court.
Storage rules
The FSS regularly conducts audits that establish the validity and completeness of payments and compensation received. Sick leave falls under such checks, so companies provide them for review to Fund employees.
In the event that a specialist detects false documents, this may serve as a basis for refusing to set off payments due to temporary disability. Sheets are filed in a folder. They must be stored in the company for 6 years. It is important to know that such archives are not created in hospitals. If the employer keeps silence about the receipt of fake sheets, such violations are reported to the prosecutor. Moreover, the employer cannot be held liable.
Authorized Service Verification Methods
Fund specialists carry out their activities within the framework of legal norms that are regulated by methodological standards. Each accountant knows how the FSS checks sick leave. The employees of this service take into account the compliance of the form with the state standard. The personal seal and signature of the doctor is also taken into account. Visual inspection allows you to establish the availability of the necessary information in the sheet - the name of the organization, details of the insured person, legibility of the diagnosis and the correctness of the dates of treatment.
Particular attention is paid to the procedure for the employee to submit a medical document to accounting. The delivery procedure takes place no later than the submission of a monthly report, which displays information about working time and calculating income during the period of treatment.
How to find out the authenticity?
An official may draw up an application addressed to the chief physician of a medical institution. Then employees will report how long the disease lasted, who issued the disability certificate, from which date the employee was discharged. You can independently determine the fake, just by looking at the document.
On such sheets put the official and rectangular stamp of the medical institution, the signature of the registrar and the attending physician. Also, the employer can write a statement to the FSS in order to ascertain the authenticity of the sick leave. However, it is faster to check the sick leave number on the FSS website, since this procedure takes a few minutes.
Counterfeiting and marketing
Such actions entail criminal liability for up to two years in prison. If an employee used a fake sick leave for personal gain, this is punishable by an administrative fine, the amount of which is 120,000 rubles. Also, such actions may entail administrative corrective labor for up to two years.
Brief conclusion
It is important for the employer to know how to verify the sick leave certificate for authenticity. This is due to the fact that forging such a document is quite simple. Forms are freely sold on the Internet at various resources and numerous points of illegal trade. It is not recommended to delay the verification and processing of the information received.
The norms of modern legislation regulate a certain period during which the accountant must issue a payment to the employee. The employer can check the sick leave by number in the FSS personally or on the official website of this structure.