How to prepare the request for the allowances compensatory benefit (RP 5003)

What is it for?

When an absence of 30 days or more was paid by Social Security, the employee can claim from it a benefit for the part of the allowance the company did not pay. This screen calculates the amount and the claim period.

The company does not declare anything here. The screen warns: “Nothing is sent or posted.” The claim is the employee's, and there is no line on the payslip.

When to use it?

• When an employee returns from a long absence and asks what they can claim.
• At the start of the year, for the claim period that opens in January.

Where to find it?

Payroll › Prepare › What is there to do this month? › Supporting lists › Compensatory benefit (RP 5003).

Before you start

• Your profile is Payroll Administrator. The Accountant profile does not have the Payroll app.
• The absence is approved, and is of a type Social Security pays. For sick leave, Social Security or insurance protection must be filled in, or the approval is refused. If you change the Protection on an absence already classified, it goes back to To Approve, and you must approve it again.
• You have the amount of the two allowances as if they were paid in full.

How to use it

1. Open the screen and choose the Worker.
2. Check the Year of the allowances. The screen shows the previous year, but never a year before 2026, because the rules only exist from then: in 2026 it shows 2026.
3. Fill in Holiday allowance of the year and Christmas allowance of the year.
4. For leave to care for a child with a disability or chronic illness, tick Assistance to a child with a disability or chronic disease. With the box ticked, the total is capped at €1,074.26 in 2026 (2 times the IAS of €537.13). Leave of this type from 05/01/2026 to 12/06/2026 (159 days), with allowances of €3,200.00, gives €1,115.18 without the box and €1,074.26 with it. Today, the table line stays at €1,115.18 and the total at €1,074.26, because the cap only applies to the total. Pending on-screen validation: this difference between the line and the total is under review. The legal cap is the one in Benefit to ask the Social Security; do not give the line amount to the employee.
5. Read Benefit to ask the Social Security, Period to ask and the detail per allowance.

Example. Parental leave from 01/10/2026 to 15/11/2026 (46 days), with allowances of €1,000.00, in 2026:

Step	Calculation	Amount
Unpaid part of the Christmas allowance	€1,000.00 × 46 ÷ 365	€126.03
Benefit, at 80 %	€126.03 × 80 %	€100.82

The holiday allowance is not included in this case: in parental leave, the company pays it, as the Social Security Practical Guide says. The claim runs from 01/01/2027 to 30/06/2027.

Expected result

You know the amount, the percentage and the dates to give the employee. Nothing changes on the payslip or in the accounting.

Important notes

Legal basis

Decree-Law no. 28/2004 (illness) and Decree-Law no. 91/2009 (parenthood), as cited in the Social Security Practical Guide “Prestações Compensatórias dos Subsídios de Férias, Natal ou outros semelhantes”. The guide gives 60 % for illness with benefit, 80 % for parenthood, a maximum of 2 IAS for care of a child with a disability or chronic illness, and the deadline: 6 months from 1 January of the following year or, where applicable, from the end of the contract. The screen only shows the first of these two deadlines.

Pending validation by a certified accountant: the text of the two decree-laws, which was not re-read here, only the guide.

Common problems

The screen says	What to do
“Nothing to ask: no impediment of 30 days or more paid by the Social Security in this year.”	Check that the absence is approved and has 30 days or more in the year. For 20 days of sick leave, this answer is correct: the contract is not suspended. For a workplace accident too: the insurer pays.
“The year 1990 is not valid for the allowances.”	Enter a year between 2000 and 2100.
“The benefit cannot be computed for 2025. What happened: the rules for the compensatory benefit (percentages, ceiling and deadline) are in force only from 2026 and nothing was assumed for earlier years. How to fix it: choose the year 2026 or a later one in “Year of the allowances”.”	Choose 2026 or a later year.

Illness. For approved sick leave of 45 days, with allowances of €1,095.00, the screen shows one line per allowance, in the Situation Illness, at 60 %: €81.00 each, €162.00 in total. Below the table, a warning asks you to confirm: “Confirme a linha do subsídio de férias com o seu contabilista certificado antes de a pedir.” (Check the holiday allowance line with your certified accountant before claiming it.)

Pending validation by a certified accountant: the Practical Guide says that, for sick leave that starts and ends in the same year, the company pays the holiday allowance and Social Security only pays the benefit for the Christmas allowance. Do not give the employee the holiday allowance line without confirming it.