Doctor’s certificate for participants in programme

If you have a patient who is ill and receives a benefit in the form of activity support, development allowance or introduction benefit, you should use Arbetsförmedlingen’s doctor’s certificate for participants in labour market policy programmes AF00251 for sick leave.

Arbetsförmedlingen’s doctor’s certificate has been adapted to make assessment of participants in the programme easier. These patients are assessed for participation in the programme and not for work.

Arbetsförmedlingen´s doctor´s certificate AF00251 (in Swedish) Pdf, 1 MB.

Personal data

Here you enter the patient’s name and personal identity number or coordination number.

Field 1: The certificate is based on

Here you enter the grounds on which you have made the assessment. You can choose from several alternatives. The assessment should essentially be based on your own examination. If it is based on something else, state the reason.

Field 2a: The patient’s activities in the programme

Here you enter what the patient has explained that they are doing in their programme. You should make your medical assessment on the basis of the participant’s ability to perform their activities in the programme.

Examples of activities are study, work experience, jobseeker activities and employability rehabilitation.

Field 2 b: Extent of the programme (hours per week)

Here you enter what the patient states to be the extent of the programme.

Field 3: The patient has the following disability

Here you describe the disability that causes the reduced ability to participate in the programme, as observed by your and other professionals’ examination and through medical investigation. This could, for example, be reduced mobility, bending and stretching abilities, rotation, strength, concentration, memory function or energy.

Field 4: The patient has the following activity limitations

Describe tasks in relation to the programme activity that the patient cannot or should not perform because of the illness/injury. Here you assess and clearly describe how the illness limits the patient’s ability to perform the activity.

Activity limitations in the musculoskeletal system should be described so as to make clear what the patient cannot do: for example, if the patient has difficulty in moving around, cannot manage lifting or long-term static load on a particular part of the body.

With mental problems activity limitation may mean that the patient has major or minor difficulties with attention, learning new things, understanding instructions or beginning, performing or ending a task. The patient can also have difficulties in handling stress, changes and other psychological demands.

Field 5 a: The patient is prevented from participating in their activities because of illness/injury

Here you can state if it is your assessment that the patient is prevented from participating in their programme.

Field 5 b: The patient is prevented from participating in activities to the following extent and period because of illness/injury

Make your assessment based on the extent of the programme as described in field 2 b. If you do not know the extent, assume that the programme is full-time.

An example: Full-time corresponds to 40 hours per week. A 75 per cent programme thus corresponds to 30 hours per week. If the patient is 50 per cent prevented from participating in the programme, Arbetsförmedlingen considers that they are prevented from participating for 15 hours per week.

Field 6 a: In my opinion, the absence period, field 5b, can be shortened or reduced in extent with adaptation

Here you state whether the absence period, in your assessment, can be shortened or reduced in extent with adaptation. This is an important signal to Arbetsförmedlingen that the programme may need to be adapted so that the participant can take part despite their illness.

Adaptation means that the conditions in the programme are adapted on the basis of the programme participant’s limitations. This is to increase the participant’s opportunities to benefit from the programme.

Field 6 b: In my opinion, the following adaptations could shorten or reduce the extent of the absence period

Here you have the opportunity to suggest adaptations, or you can leave this field blank.

For example, an adaptation could be:

  • the content of the activity,
  • the place for the activity
  • adapt the placement of the programme timing,
  • work aids,
  • personal assistance, such as guidance or personal support.

Field 7 a: After the absence period, field 5b, my assessment is that

Describe here your assessment of whether the patient can return to their activities in the programme, with or without adaptation, after the absence period. This is an important signal to

Arbetsförmedlingen that the programme may need to be adapted so that the participant can take part despite their illness.

Field 7 b: After the absence period, field 5b, my assessment is that

Here you have the opportunity to suggest adaptations, or you can leave this field blank.

For example, an adaptation could be:

  • the content of the activity,
  • the place for the activity
  • adapt the placement of the programme timing, work aids,
  • personal assistance, such as guidance or personal support.

The participant should send their doctor's certificate directly to Arbetsförmedlingen and not, as previously, to Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency). This is due to a change in the rules in the following regulation:

Regulation (2017:819) regarding benefits to participants in labour market policy programmes (riksdagen.se) (in Swedish)

Frequently asked questions

When should Arbetsförmedlingen’s doctor’s certificate be used?

If a person who participates in labour market policy programmes through Arbetsförmedlingen and who receives activity support, development allowance or introduction benefit is ill for more than seven days, they must send a doctor’s certificate to Arbetsförmedlingen so as to maintain their benefit during the absence due to illness.

This can be compared with when an employee needs to send a doctor’s certificate to their employer in order to receive sick pay.

What does Arbetsförmedlingen use the doctor’s certificate for?

Arbetsförmedlingen receives the doctor’s certificate so that participants are able to keep their benefit after the seventh day of absence due to illness. When Arbetsförmedlingen has the doctor’s certificate, we can also use the information to consider whether it is possible to adapt the activities in the programme so that the person is able to participate in spite of illness or injury.

Which doctor’s certificate should be used for sick leave longer than 30 days?

Use Arbetsförmedlingen’s doctor’s certificate AF00251 for sick leave for participants in the programme, even if, in your opinion, the patient will need sick leave for longer than 30 days. The doctor’s certificate (AF00251) is used as long as the participant is registered in a programme. In Arbetsförmedlingen’s doctor’s certificate, you assess the participant’s ability to participate in a labour market programme and not their ability to work.

Arbetsförmedlingen uses the doctor’s certificate to assess, together with the participant, whether Arbetsförmedlingen can adapt the programme so that the participant can still take part to some

extent. An adaptation means that the participant does not need to be discharged from the programme after 30 days

What happens if the participant works outside their programme?

A participant who also works outside their programme and who wishes to apply for sick pay or sickness benefit needs two different doctor’s certificates. Both a doctor’s certificate (AF00251) for Arbetsförmedlingen for their time in the programme and a doctor’s certificate to be sent to their employer or to Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency) to apply for sickness benefit.

How is the doctor’s certificate handled?

Arbetsförmedlingen, together with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, plans to digitalise doctor’s certificates. Until the digitalised certificates start to be used, as a doctor you can find doctor’s certificates on Arbetsförmedlingen’s website, or in some cases also on the county council’s patient notes system.

Do you have any other questions?

Email us if you cannot find the answer to your question about Arbetsförmedlingen’s doctor’s certificate. Email can only be used by healthcare personnel who wish to ask general questions about doctor’s certificates for programme participants.

Email address for healthcare personnel

Arbetsförmedlingen’s information to participants regarding notification of illness

Information for participants who are ill for more than seven days