From 1 November, the health fund pays less after a workplace accident: the cap on the benefit base falls almost fourfold. Who is affected and what to check

In a week, on 1 November 2026, the way benefits are calculated changes for an accident du travail (workplace accident) and a maladie professionnelle (occupational disease). Decree no. 2026-909 of 30 September 2026 was published in the Journal officiel on 1 October. It lowers the cap on the daily earnings used to calculate indemnités journalières (IJ, daily allowances) from 0.834% to 0.226% of the annual Social Security ceiling (PASS).

The numbers

The PASS for 2026 is €48,060. Today the daily base is capped at €400.82, according to the service-public guide. At the new rate the cap works out at about €108.62 a day. That is our calculation: 0.226% of €48,060. Service-public puts the same thing in salary terms: the new cap equals 1.8 times the SMIC. For ordinary sick leave the cap is 1.4 times the SMIC, so the workplace-accident scheme stays more generous, as service-public also points out.

Who is affected: people whose gross salary is above 1.8 times the SMIC. Their IJ base will hit the cap, and the benefit from the fund will be lower than under the old rules. For people who earn less, the calculation does not change.

What counts is the date of the accident

Under Article 3 of the decree, the new rate applies to accidents and occupational diseases occurring from 1 November 2026. If the accident happened in October and the sick leave runs on into November, the previous rate still applies.

How accident du travail benefits work

This is the core of the matter, and it stays the same after 1 November. The service-public guide "Accident du travail : indemnités journalières" describes it like this:

• the employer pays the day of the accident in full;
• IJ start the next day, with no délai de carence (the unpaid waiting days that apply to ordinary sick leave);
• the base is the gross salary for the month before the leave, divided by 30.42, up to the cap;
• days 1 to 28: 60% of the base; from day 29: 80%;
• the benefit cannot exceed daily net earnings (the base minus 21%), and CSG and CRDS are deducted from it;
• the CPAM pays it (the MSA for agricultural workers).

Where the employer top-up comes in

When salary is maintained, the employer pays the difference, and service-public says plainly that this top-up will grow under the new cap. But the statutory top-up does not apply to everyone. According to the service-public guide, the conditions are:

• at least 1 year of service with that employer on the first day of absence;
• the employer was informed within 48 hours and sent the medical certificate;
• treatment in France or the EEA;
• the employee is not a home worker, seasonal, intermittent or temporary (interim) worker.

The top-up brings payments up to 90% of gross pay for the first 30 days and 66.66% after that. How long it lasts depends on length of service: from 60 days in a 12-month period with 1 to 5 years of service, up to 180 days with 31 years or more.

This matters most for recent arrivals: with less than a year of service there is no statutory top-up. In that case the lower cap shows up directly in the household budget. It is worth reading the contrat de travail now and asking HR whether the company has a régime de prévoyance and what it covers, because payments from it are taken into account when the top-up is calculated.

What comes next

A further change takes effect on 1 January 2027 (decree no. 2026-501). For accidents from that date, IJ will be paid for 4 years at most per period of incapacity. After that, the permanent-incapacity scheme applies.

Questions about a specific arrêt de travail go to the local CPAM (or MSA). The fund is the body that calculates and pays IJ.