While you are on arrêt maladie (medical sick leave), your income comes from the daily sickness benefit paid by Social Security, any top-up from your employer and, often, a company provident scheme. Nothing in law stops you borrowing during this time, but a bank will see these payments as temporary and usually lower than your salary. For loans you have already signed, it is the incapacity cover in your borrower insurance that takes over once the waiting period has passed.
After 50, sick leave tends to last longer and is more often linked to an ALD (affection de longue durée, a recognised long-term condition). The issue then plays out on two fronts: how to keep paying the house or the car on a reduced income, and how to fund a new need, such as an adapted vehicle or uncovered medical costs, without waiting until you are back at work.
What you actually receive while off sick
Assurance Maladie pays 50% of your daily base wage, worked out from your last three gross monthly salaries divided by 91.25. That wage is capped at 1.4 times the minimum wage, €2,613.82 a month in 2026, which limits the benefit to €42.97 gross per day. A three-day waiting period applies, except for successive absences linked to the same ALD.
Benefits are limited to twelve months over any three-year period for ordinary sick leave, and to three years for an ALD. The Labour Code also obliges employers to top up pay for staff with at least one year's service, on a sliding scale from 60 days up to 180 days for the longest-serving, after a separate seven-day wait. Collective agreements and provident contracts frequently do better, sometimes up to full salary.
What the ITT guarantee in your loan insurance covers
| Feature | Usual position | What to check in your policy |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting period (franchise) | 90 days for employees; 15 to 60 days for the self-employed; 180 days alongside a provident scheme | Whether it runs from the first day off or from another date |
| Basis of payment | Flat-rate (instalment paid according to the insured share) or indemnity (actual loss of income) | Which option you signed up to |
| Maximum duration | About 1,095 days, then possibly invalidity cover | Cap per claim |
| Age at which cover stops | Often 65, sometimes 67 or retirement | Exact end date |
| Exclusions | Mental health and back conditions often restricted | Clauses buying back exclusions |
| Therapeutic part-time return | Rarely covered | Whether an ITP (partial incapacity) guarantee exists |
Flat-rate or indemnity cover: a world of difference
ITT stands for incapacité temporaire totale de travail, total temporary incapacity. Under flat-rate cover, the insurer pays your share of the instalment whatever else you receive. Under indemnity cover, it only compensates lost income after deducting sickness benefit and employer top-ups. A manager whose employer keeps paying full salary may therefore get nothing from the insurer despite years of premiums.
The claim must be filed within the deadline in the general terms, with the sick note, a medical certificate and the repayment schedule. The insurer's medical adviser may call you in for an examination. During the waiting period you go on paying the instalments alone, and that is the stretch to plan with your bank.
Keeping an existing loan on track during sick leave
- Notify the borrower insurer in the first few days, without waiting for the end of the waiting period.
- Ask the bank for a payment holiday or reduced instalments if the contract allows, until the ITT cover kicks in.
- Ask HR what salary top-up and provident cover apply to you.
- If the leave drags on, discuss a possible switch to invalidity cover with the insurer.
- If money gets tight, contact the CPAM social worker: the health insurance fund's social action budget can grant one-off financial help.
Worked example: Sylvie, 54, off for five months
Sylvie is an accountant on €3,080 gross, roughly €2,400 net. Her daily base wage is above the ceiling, so her benefit is limited to €42.97 gross a day, close to €1,200 net a month. Her employer's top-up covers the first weeks, then her income falls. She repays €720 a month on her house, insured at 100% on a flat-rate basis.
After the 90-day waiting period, the insurer pays the instalments in full. For the first three months, her bank agrees to move two instalments to the end of the loan, charging interim interest. Without that holiday, Sylvie would have spent 60% of her income on the mortgage at her most vulnerable moment.
Borrowing while off sick: possible, with conditions
Banks are reluctant to count temporary sickness benefit. They are more willing when the absence is short, when the employer maintains salary, when a co-borrower has stable income or when real security is offered. Your employment contract stays in force: a suspended permanent contract (CDI) is still a CDI, which reassures far more than a fixed-term contract about to end.
For a mortgage, the Lemoine law removes the health questionnaire only if the insured amount stays below €200,000 and the loan ends before 60. Otherwise ongoing sick leave must be declared, and the insurer may postpone its decision until you return to work. The right to be forgotten, five years after treatment ends for cancer, does not apply to an illness still being treated.
Refusal reasons to anticipate
- Reference income too low: the bank calculates your debt ratio on the benefit, not on the salary.
- Insurance postponed until the sick leave is over.
- False health declaration: it can void the insurance and leave the borrower with no cover at all.
- Overdrafts caused by the drop in income, visible on the last three months of statements.
- An application filed in the middle of the waiting period, just when existing instalments weigh most.
Help that does not depend on a bank
The CPAM's health and social action fund and the complementary pension funds can make one-off grants to employees hit by illness. Action Logement provides free support to private-sector staff facing illness or invalidity, for housing-related costs. Crédit Agricole's Point Passerelle and La Banque Postale's L'Appui service help restructure budgets and loans.
For a one-off need, supported personal microcredit stays open to you, as does a pawn loan. And if sick leave makes repayment impossible for the long term, the Banque de France over-indebtedness commission can be approached: once a file is declared admissible, enforcement action is suspended. If part of your borrowing is with a UK or Irish lender, contact it as well, since any payment protection cover will follow that country's rules.
Questions from employees on sick leave
Can the insurer stop paying if I return on therapeutic part-time? In most contracts, yes: even a partial return ends total incapacity. Some policies offer partial incapacity cover that pays a reduced share. Check the clause before you go back.
Can my bank demand immediate repayment of my loan? No. Illness is not a ground for calling in a loan. Only prolonged arrears, after formal notice, can lead the bank to demand the outstanding capital.
Can I switch borrower insurance while on sick leave? Home loan insurance can be cancelled at any time, but the new insurer will assess your health if the questionnaire applies. Switching mid-absence often means losing cover you already had, so it is usually wiser to wait.
Can creditors seize my sickness benefit? It can be seized within the same limits as wages, following the legal scale. An amount equal to the RSA for a single person always remains protected in your bank account.
Organisations and offers to contact
- APRIL : Alternative borrower insurer's guide to ITT cover: waiting periods by status, flat-rate versus indemnity formulas and therapeutic part-time returns.
- CAFPI : Credit and insurance broker describing how to declare sick leave, the documents required, the maximum duration and the age limit of ITT cover.
- Service-Public.gouv.fr, sickness benefit : Official 2026 page on daily sickness benefit for employees: calculation, ceiling, waiting days, duration and eligibility conditions.