Hungarian State Treasury

Anyone who has suffered a health impairment of more than 13% as a result of an accident at work or occupational disease during the insurance period, but is not entitled to benefits for persons with changed working capacity and is not receiving an old age pension on the basis of a claim is entitled to a work accident annuity.

A person who receives old age pension and is also  in self-employment, in employment relationship or in agency contract is not considered as an insured person therefore work accident annuity cannot be applied on the basis of a work accident suffered as a pensioner.

A person who has deliberately caused an injury or deliberately delayed in seeking medical assistance or in reporting an accident cannot be entitled to a work accident annuity.

An accident at work is an accident which

• occurs in the course of or in connection with work in the course of employment,
• it occurs on the way to or from work or on the way to or from home or accommodation (hereafter: commuting accident),
• occurs during the performance of public work,
• in the course of using certain social security benefits.

An accident occurring while claiming social security benefits is considered to be an accident which occurs in connection with the appearance of the insured person at the examination or treatment ordered for the purpose of assessing the extent of their incapacity to work, the health impairment and their rehabilitation capacity, as well as during other examinations or treatment necessary for becoming capable of work.

An accident shall not be considered as an accident at work if

• it is caused in whole or in part by the person who has suffered the accident being under the influence of alcohol or drugs,
• it occurs during unauthorised work not related to workplace duties, unauthorised use of a vehicle, disorderly conduct at work, or
• it occurred while travelling from home or accommodation to work or from work to home or accommodation, if travelling by a route other than the shortest route, or during an unjustified interruption of the journey,
• in the event of vocational education, dual training it occurred while travelling from/to home or accommodation of the person employed with vocational education labour contract from/to the location of the training managed by vocational education institution.

Occupational disease is an impairment of health occurring in the course of work or occupation which is due to physical, chemical, biological, psychosocial or ergonomic pathological factors connected with the work or occupation and with the work or the work process, or which is the result of a greater or lesser use on the worker than is optimal.

An accident at work and occupational disease must be notified to the employer.

The investigation of the occupational nature of the accident or the occupational nature of the disease is performed by the employer if it is a paying agent or, failing that, by the government office acting as the competent health insurance body for the place where the employer is established.

The investigation of the occupational nature of the accident or the occupational nature of the disease is performed by the employer as the paying agent or, failing that, by the government office acting as the competent health insurance body for the place where the employer is established.

For more details, see the “Accident at Work" information at the Health insurance section in the "Accident" menu point.

The pension insurance bodies have the authority to establish work accident annuity.

A work accident annuity can be claimed within up to three years from the date of the accident at work or up to one year after the occupational disease was diagnosed.

If, following the accident at work, the injured person was in receipt of an accident disability pension or a benefit for changed working capacity established in connection with the accident at work, the work accident annuity may be claimed within three years of the date on which the disability benefit ceased.

The application must be accompanied by a medical referral from a general practitioner which contains a summary of the medical condition and treatment of the person concerned and is issued for the purpose of assessing the change in their capacity for work.

The enclosing of the therapist’s  opinion describing the treatment and current condition, the hospital discharge report, the specialist medical results is only necessary if access to the documents is restricted in the National eHealth Infrastructure (hereinafter EESZT) or they are not available at EESZT.

The medical documents can be checked at on the eeszt.gov.hu website after electronic identification, the access of the documents can be modified at “Önrendelkezés”/”Self-determination” menu point

If a decision recognising the accident at work is available, it must be submitted at the same time as the application for the annuity.

In order to establish the work accident annuity, a personal examination may take place if the claimant's health impairment cannot be assessed on the basis of the medical documents attached by the claimant and available in the EESZT. In this case, the medical expert body summons the client for a personal examination.

In the event of a summon, attendance at the examination is mandatory, therefore, if the claimant fails to appear at the personal examination through fault of his/her own, this is considered a withdrawal of the claim.

The administrative time limit is 60 days.

The accident annuity will be paid by the Pension Payment Directorate of the Hungarian State Treasury within 10 workdays of the date of the decision.

An accident annuity may be determined the day after the accident but earliest from the first day of the sixth month preceding the month in which the claim is submitted, provided that the occupational nature of the accident has been recognised, the applicant's health impairment resulting from the accident exceeds 13% and they are not receiving sickness benefit on that day.

The work accident annuity at level 1 can be granted for a maximum of two years. At the end of this period, the accident annuity will cease without review, regardless of whether the established health impairment persists.

In all other cases, a review of the state of health must be conducted at the time specified in the decision awarding the benefit, and the continuation of the annuity depends on the outcome of that review. The result of the review will lead to the termination of entitlement to a work accident annuity when the degree of impairment of the beneficiary's health is less than 14%.

A work accident annuity may be re-established, i.e. revived, on the basis of a new claim in the following cases:

• in the case of an improvement in the condition of the person concerned, i.e. if the annuity was terminated due to the person's impairment of less than 14% and the person's health impairment exceeds 13% again,
• if the degree of disability exceeds 20 % for three months after the termination of the first level accident annuity.

If the work accident annuity is being reinstated, the basis of the annuity will be the average monthly earnings on the basis of which the work accident annuity was last determined.

If there is a new accident at work, the consequences of all the accidents are taken into account together when determining the degree of health impairment, but the annuity can only be reassessed if the medical expert body establishes a higher degree of health impairment than the one resulting from the previous accident at work.

In this case, the amount of the accident annuity shall be calculated on the basis of the more favourable of the average earnings applicable to the previous accident and the average earnings applicable to the new accident.

No appeal may be lodged. If the decision is unlawful, or you do not agree with the degree of the determined health impairment, a statement of claim can be lodged against the decision within 30 days to have it reviewed by the court with jurisdiction over the administrative college of the place of residence.

The letter of claim must be lodged, free of charge, with the pension insurance body which took the decision or sent by registered post. After electronic identification, the claim can also be filed electronically on the https://epapir.gov.hu interface. After entry, in the subject group "Jogorvoslat" the case type "Közigazgatási szerv határozatának bírósági felülvizsgálata iránti keresetlevél benyújtása" should be selected.