Parliament gives green light for digitalization of income compensation
Published: Wednesday, May 29th 2024, 09:11
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Members of the armed forces as well as civil defense and civilian service members should be able to submit their applications for income replacement benefits digitally from 2026. Following the National Council, the Council of States unanimously approved the necessary amendments to the law on Wednesday.
The matter is therefore ready for the final vote. The Council of States' Social Security and Health Committee had requested that the National Council's decision from the spring session be followed. "The bureaucratic burden will be massively reduced," said committee spokesperson Damian Müller (FDP/LU).
By replacing the current paper forms, the Federal Council wants to reduce the administrative burden on service providers and their employers as well as the offices responsible for implementing the Income Compensation Ordinance (EO). It also aims to improve data quality and shorten the time it takes to pay out income compensation benefits.
This should lead to considerable savings for employers and cantonal compensation funds. The Federal Council anticipates one-off costs of four to five million francs for the introduction of the registration system.
In addition, there would be operating costs of CHF 0.2 million per year. In contrast, employers save CHF 4.5 million and compensation funds CHF 2.1 million per year, calculated Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider.
The EO compensates for the loss of earnings during service in the army, civil defense or civilian service as well as during "Youth and Sport" training and in youth leadership courses. According to parliamentary documents, around 590,000 registration forms are processed in Switzerland every year - around 330,000 of these relate to the army.
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