Self-employed persons may settle a late payment immediately or stagger payments of a significant amount over a settlement instalment. In such cases, the Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale - CCSS) grants a payment schedule.
Persons concerned
Self-employed persons who are unable to pay their social security contributions within 10 days after the account statement (invoice) has been issued.
How to proceed
Requesting a payment schedule
In case of non-payments corresponding to a period of time equivalent to 3 monthly contribution payments, the CCSS sends a written caution to the self-employed person, asking for reasons for the delay in payment. The self-employed person is requested to take all the necessary measures to reduce the debt.
The written caution includes a form for the self-employed person to:
- notify the CCSS that they have ceased their activity;
- adjust their provisional income;
- ask for a reduction of the contribution base for pension insurance;
- request a payment schedule from the CCSS.
Self-employed persons can request a payment schedule by post before a written caution has been issued.
No payment schedule can be granted if an enforced recovery measure is already in progress.
If a payment schedule is granted, the CCSS sends the self-employed person a letter with the exact terms of the settlement instalment.
The self-employed person also receives a written notification if their request is rejected.
For the duration of the payment schedule, any direct debit mandate is suspended. It is automatically reactivated once the arrears have been cleared.
In the event of a non-compliance with the payment schedule, the CCSS proceeds to the enforced recovery of the unpaid amounts, notably by means of a bailiff.
If the self-employed person has not requested a payment schedule and the delay in payment amounts to 4 monthly contributions, a summons to pay is sent by registered letter. This is a final reminder from the CCSS to the late payer to either pay the outstanding contributions in full within 2 weeks or to comply with the payment schedule set out in the same letter.
Features of the payment schedule
The payment schedule is a monthly instalment of the arrears.
In addition to the instalment of the arrears, the monthly payment must also include payment of the usual contributions for the applicable month. It must be made by the 25th of each month until the balance is cleared.
The full amount to be paid for the month in question is stated at the bottom of the first page of the monthly CCSS account statement.
End of the payment schedule
The payment schedule ends when the outstanding balance is less than or equal to the last 2 account statements (invoice). Contributions can continue to be paid as they were before the payment schedule was introduced. Any temporarily suspended direct debit mandates resume automatically.
The CCSS terminates the payment schedule for failure to comply with either the amount to be paid or the payment date. In this case, the CCSS forwards the files to a bailiff to proceed to the enforced recovery of the arrears. The self-employed person is notified by registered mail with a copy of the constraint.