A Short Guide to Working in Cyprus – Social Insurance, Healthcare & Welfare Benefits
Beyond your salary, Cyprus’s social system offers a safety net for illness, unemployment, and healthcare. Here’s how it works and how to access it.
Step 1: Understand the Social Insurance Fund
🏦What It Covers
The Social Insurance Fund provides benefits for maternity, paternity, parenthood, childbirth, sickness, unemployment, and disability, among others — subject to certain conditions to be completed online through the CY Login platform.
Step 2: Know Your Unemployment and Sickness Allowances
📋How to Apply
- The first 3 days of interruption of employment are unpaid; allowance can then be paid from the 4th day, for up to 156 consecutive days
- To apply for the unemployment allowance, register first on the online platform of the Public Employment Services of the Department of Labour, then apply through the CY Login platform
- Recognised refugees and subsidiary protection beneficiaries may also need to register with the Guaranteed Minimum Income application to benefit from this allowance separately, unless they’re out of work for an extended period
Step 3: Understand Healthcare Coverage (GeSY)
🏥The General Healthcare System
- All recognised refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection are covered by GeSY (the General Healthcare System), which includes all public healthcare facilities, healthcare professionals, and pharmacies — as well as any private sector medical facilities and pharmacies that follow the same GeSY rules
- Asylum seekers are only covered by GeSY if they work and pay contributions into the system. If they don’t work, they are not eligible for GeSY coverage, and can only be treated in the public healthcare sector.
Step 4: Know About Social Welfare Benefits
🤝If You Need Support
Asylum seekers can benefit from Feeding, Clothing and Footwear Allowance, Electricity, Water and Pocket-Money Allowance, as well as Rent Allowance depending on the number of family members, from the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare. They do not need to be employed or registered as jobseekers to benefit from these allowances.
Step 5: Understand Contributions and Tax
💶Social Security Contributions and Income Tax
- Personal income tax is progressive: 0% up to €19,500/year; 20% from €19,501–28,000; 25% from €28,001–36,300; 30% from €36,301–60,000; 35% above €60,001
- Main contributions and deductions, split between employee and employer, include: Social Insurance Fund, Redundancy Fund, Human Resource Development Fund, Social Cohesion Fund, and the General Healthcare System (GeSY)
- More information on contributions is available online through the CY Login platform
Your Next Steps
- Set up your CY Login account if you haven’t already.
- Register with the Public Employment Services if you become unemployed.
- Check with the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare if you need support with rent, food, or other essentials.
- If you’re an asylum seeker and not working, remember you’re only covered by public healthcare, not GeSY.
Source: Inclusive Labour Market — A Short Guide to Working in Cyprus for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, May 2023.